Francis : “I Hold Out My Hand and My Heart Will Be In It” (1979)
“Adrienne saw his stigmata, she was deeply horrified. And she thought everyone would have been horrified as she was ...
And now he sees the stigmata on his hands. They strike him as something foreign, as something that simply does not belong to him. As if the Lord’s wounds were like two rose-petals that accidentally fell into his hands as he gazed at the rose bush. And as if the petals served simply to contemplate the roses better...”
The Book of All Saints by Adrienne von Speyr (dictated to Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar)
Paintings of Francis receiving the stigmata have always deeply moved my soul, especially those of Giotto di Bondone (c. 1267-1337) and Taddeo Gaddi (1300-1366). In fact I made an eight day retreat in Boston, visiting the Harvard Fogg Museum every day, to sit in front of the Taddeo Gaddi. Little did I know I’d be trying to copy that painting for the Ranchos de Taos Church, of San Francisco de Asis, in 1999.
Immediately after my Ordination to the Priesthood 25 May 1979, I was asked by Fr Michael Sheeran, SJ, to be artist in residence at St Regis University in Denver. The only requirement was that I have an exhibit of my work at the end of the year, 1980. I called that exhibit “What A Fool Believes” after the popular song by the Doobie Brothers. It opened on April Fool’s Day, 1 April 1980.
To make a long story short, I created two Chapels for St Regis University. One was based on the now, ecological patron, St Francis mixed with paintings of the 4 Seasons, bringing in the father of modern poetry, Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ, and his passionate love of the “wild.”
The other chapel was called “La Sangre de Cristo,” in the basement of the Jesuit Residence, Carroll Hall.
Francis, the first person to ever receive the wounds, was spending time on Mt La Verna, in September 1224, two years before he died at age 44. He was grieving what he felt, were his complete failures.
Near dawn he had an apparition of Jesus Crucified blended/with/a/Seraph with six wings, fly down from Heaven, and when the apparition slowly disappeared, he was left with the 5 wounds of Jesus Crucified, and the fiery love of a seraph.
So blest was I to visit La Verna in 1984. Outside of Israel, I have never felt so breathless, truly almost unable to breathe, at the palpable holiness of a place.
The chapel and community of La Verna is on a mesa, very similar to the Acoma Pueblo here in New Mexico. It was snowing heavily that March of 84, when the bus I was taking pulled up to the Santuario de La Verna and dropped me off. Nothing was open in the small town. I panicked as I watched the bus leave and looked up at the mesa and knew I’d have to hike up.
I spent 3 days (because of the weather) with the Friars and novices. I’d walk into a chapel and there were authentic Della Robbia bas relief masterpieces, right in front of me. I know I’ve never been as ecstatic as those 3 days. There was very little heat so I slept in all my clothes and the Friars insisted I down 3 large glasses of red wine, and it did the trick; I slept warm and well.
This painting done years before that experience, 1979, shows Francis on the mesa, (St Regis University) contemplating the wound in his hand.
It’s has perhaps become an annoying cliche’ to say again,
that we all, all, have wounds.
I have come to believe that as we grow older we have one decision to make; are we going to withhold love, or finally, just give it away, wounds and all ?
I’ve been inspired by so many women and men who decided to just give love, like my Dad, who died in 1997. He gave me a map to old age I’m presently trying to follow. I don’t intend to confuse you that you have to “let back in” abusive people, but Dad inspired me to slowly shed the scales of years of protection and love. Also meeting St John Paul II In August 1993, has had the same glowing effect.
This is my road now and my hope is that Dad and St John Paul will guide me patiently into the elder years. Everyone imagines Francis as elderly when he died but he was only 44. Everything I’ve read about him tells me he died with nothing; nothing but his love nakedly, passionately on display. On October 3, 1226, he asked to be laid down on the earthen mud floor, naked, and at sunset his soul flew into God.
He had nothing.
Yet, has made the greatest contribution to Catholicism of any saint. Just ask Pope Francis. Look at him. Now look again. Look at him now creating much controversy at the synod.
See his passion for our creation and ...
what what what about the church ?
Who is worthy enough to get in ?
To quote Pope Francis,
“Tutti, tutti, tutti”
Fr William Hart McNichols 🍂🧡🍂 October 2023

Francis I Hold Out My Hand and My Heart Will Be In It

December 26th, 2023

“I John, your brother...” (color pencil, 1982)
“I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Sprit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book...”
The Apocalypse or Revelation 1: 9-11
“The last book of the Bible introduces itself as a ‘revelation’ or ‘apocalyipsis’ in Greek which suggests that it discloses things that would not otherwise be known. Although ‘revelation ‘ could simply mean the ‘uncovering’ of what is hidden, New Testament writers used the word in a more dynamic sense for a manifestation of God’s power (Rom. 2:5), for the second coming of Christ (1 Cor. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:7), and for messages inspired by the Spirit...
The criterion for authentic prophecy is finally whether the prophet’s message promotes faithfulness to God or whether it leads people away from God...”
Craig Koester from “Revelation & the End of All Things” 2001
Because Christopher Pramuk and I are at work on a book of my early work (drawings, illustrations, images, paintings) I am looking back at them and remembering how much I was influenced by the commentary “The Revelation of St John the (Theologian) Divine” by George Bradford Caird. And then after meeting Craig Koester, in June of 2018, I began to read his book too. So I would like to present some of these images and paintings during this Lent. And the other obvious influence is the life and legend of St John the Apostle and Evangelist. In all this, I had to quote Craig about authentic prophecy, I mean in this case, authentic writing. My intention is always to bring you closer to God, and if my writings don’t do that, then please ignore them. Like every painter, musician and writer, I have my favorites. If they don’t work for you that’s fine with me; I’m just here to unveil what I’ve found.
Through the mysterious providence of God, I ended up at St John the Evangelist School after we moved into the Governor’s Mansion in 1962, I was just beginning 7th grade. This put me in a kind of spiritual proximity to St John. That year we had to write a short story and I wrote one in the voice of John. I was ordained at age 29, on 25 May 1979 (Padre Pio’s birthday 🙌🏼) and wanted to have my first Mass at St John’s, 27 May. Later on, they consolidated parishes and John lost his Parish. It was renamed Good Shepherd. I was so grieved I offered them a free, very large icon of John if they’d change it back; but you know how that goes...
There are so many legends about John, that he was given a cup of poison when a serpent crawled out of the cup, warning him. Also a legend that he fell asleep (died) at age 93 in Ephesus after caring for Mary (John 19:25) following a hint (John 21:22) that he would not die. Some of the Eastern Churches celebrate his assumption on 26 September. He is also commemorated on 6 May as “St John Before the Latin Gate” - a feast celebrating his escape from a pot of boiling oil - ordered by the Christian persecutor, the Emperor Domitian.
I’m most familiar with the late Johannine Scholar, Fr Raymond Brown (+8 August 1998) author of the “Anchor Bible Commentary on the Gospel of John,” “The Epistles of John,” and the disturbing (to me) account of “The Community of the Beloved Disciple.”
But I have to say I also love the commentary by John Marsh and most of all, the very original one by John A. T. Robinson.
Perhaps the most famous apparition of St John was 21 August 1879. It was at Knock, Ireland ; around 8pm, and it was totally silent. John appeared along with the Lamb of God, Mary and Joseph. I’ve been there, and because of the silence of the apparition it has always seemed like a living icon to me...
In my last post I pointed to the John-like character, Jabril, in the Netflix Series “Messiah.” If I watch Jabril, I feel like I’m getting a glimpse of what John was like. According to tradition, John died surrounded by his disciples, his last words were,
“Little children, love one another.”
“I see him at prayer...the moment he begins, he is so seized by divine love that he no longer needs to do anything else: he is taken up; the Lord accepts his offer; and his sacrifice is confirmed. He no longer needs to make an effort; he no longer needs to will anything: God’s will and his love fill him entirely... He is never so happy as when he is in this prayer, since grace enables him to share himself with everyone who is waiting for it.”
John the Apostle from “Book of All Saints” by Adrienne von Speyr, page 215
Fr William Hart McNichols 🦅 Lent 2023

I John, your brother

December 26th, 2023

Park Slope Lamp Brooklyn

December 26th, 2023

The Virgin of Tenderness of Yaroslavl
“...the Russian soul recognizes His voice and with ineffable joy throws itself at His feet. Apart from this faith and this hope, there is nothing left for us. The Russian land has been trodden by the Mother of God’s feet ... Yes, there is no need to fear for Russia, because Russia is saved by the strength of the Mother of God. And this, believe it, all of Orthodox Russia feels it clearly.”
Sergei Bulgakov 1918
This icon is a rendition of the prototype of the “Virgin of Tenderness of Yaroslavl,” which originally came out of the spiritually sensitive, simply-mystically elegant Moscow School of the second half of the fifteenth century, which also gave birth to the wholly/holy, child-like genius and “iconographer of iconographers,” St Andrei Rublev.
Every year round the time of my birthday, I try and show a specific icon I truly loved painting/writing. This year I (we) feel very much connected to the horrific conflict in Ukraine caused by one man in Russia, trying to destroy the soul of both Ukraine and Russia, and the daily violence we are so close to in our day; nearly every day. Are they related? I believe yes, they are. After you carefully look into both, I think you’ll see.
In March of 1917 the Russian Revolution overthrew the imperial government and in November the Bolsheviks took power. When I visited Magadan, Far East, Russia in 1995 and was commissioned to write the icons of Our Lady of Magadan and Our Lady of Pochaev I immersed myself myself in Russian history. You might find it helpful if you want to begin to understand what happened in Russia in to watch two films, first :
“Nicholas and Alexandra” 1971, (chronologically) followed by “Dr Zhivago” 1965. If you feel called to go deeper still, I suggest the brilliant “A Long Walk To Church” 1995, by Nathaniel Davis , an unflinching, and painfully distressing - yet loving - look into Russia after the revolution. Nathaniel Davis also wrote “The Last Years of Salvador Allende,” 1985.
From everything I learned in my reading, praying and research on Russian Orthodoxy, every city, even every tiny village, had/has an icon of the Mother of God . In other words, Russia is as Sergei Bulgakov wrote months after the revolution, “...trodden by the feet of the Mother of God.” I know this must seem impossible to believe, given the years after the revolution and right now with the violent assault on Ukraine, and the Orthodox Patriarch of Russia, submitting in obeisance to Putin. But if you doubt what I said, look at the life of Jesus, and the present happenings in Israel and Palestine. Why is their so much violence in the most holy places? For some reason, the Mother of God has claimed Russia as Her own. Look into the many images of the “not much more than a child “ (see Lady Julian of Norwich) Mary, crushing the head of the deadly serpent. Look into the apparitions in Paris of the Miraculous Medal, 1830.
The question is, how could Bulgakov write something so confidently filled with “hope against hope,” during the appalling violence he was witnessing all around him ?
There is not space here to tell you why Russia is so dear to the Mother of God. When the revolution happened, the dominant legend is that an icon appeared in a tree entitled “Mother of God, She Who Reigns.” I have also copied this prototype and the central message of this icon, is that Mary will reign until Russia returns to Her, as their truly Infinitely Loving Mother. Now, perhaps, the messages of Our Lady of Fatima, concerning Russia will begin to fall into place, “...but in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”
About that “hope against hope,” you may also want to read into a book that continues to change my life, “Images of Hope: Imagination As Healer of the Hopeless,” by the late Fr William Lynch, SJ.
“ O Lord, my heart is not proud,
I do not set my sights too high.
I have taken no part in great affairs,
in wonders beyond me.
No, I hold myself in quiet and silence.
Like a little child in it’s mother’s arms.
Let us hope in the Lord, now and forever.
Amen “
Psalm 131
Fr William Hart Dominic McNichols 💮 10 July 2022

St Maria Goretti - Patroness of Abused Children 1890 - 6 July 1902

July 29th, 2022

Cristo Emmanuel : Cordero de Dios (Christ Emmanuel : Lamb of God)
“The image of the Master: one glimpse and we are in love.”
15c. Zen Master Ikkyu
“The end is not an event but a person.”
G.B.Caird
“And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said to me, do not weep; behold, the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders ...stood a Lamb...”
Revelation 5:5,6
“O come, Desire of Nation bind, in one the hearts of human kind; bid Thou our sad divisions cease, and be Thyself our Prince of Peace.”
final verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel “
I’m always stunned and amazed how peaceful I finally get when I decide to go into my studio room paint. It’s similar to celebrating Mass for me. I can be in one mood when I go in, and be completely transformed by the Word of God and the Body and Blood of Christ.This is true, of every time, in the past 42 years. Every single Mass is different and every Mass is so holy, I wonder why God ever chose me for such an honor and profound privilege ?
In Theology school we studied the Book of Revelation. Being such an Apocalyptic book, like the Major Prophets, it was difficult to understand. After Theology and Ordination, I was Artist in Residence at St John Francis Regis University in my hometown, Denver. The next year I was an art student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. My grandfather, Robert A. Hart was born in Brooklyn so I felt I had some kind of familial relationship to that borough of New York. It was in my first year at Pratt that I discovered two books by the scripture scholar George Bradford Caird; “The Gospel of Luke” and “The Revelation of St John the Divine” ( Divine, meaning theologian). I dove into both books and would read them going to school on the subway, with my Walkman playing the music I loved; like Laura Nyro...a perfect subway companion who was absolutely unique, brilliant, and an extremely passionate musician, who truly loved New York City.
G.B. Caird opened both books for me and I finally had some sense of the beauty and mystery of Revelation. Besides the prophetic commentaries by Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ, I don’t think I’ve ever been so affected by any other commentaries... to this day. I know we all have our favorites, so this is simply my opinion. Both books by Caird would become a preparation for what was to come, in the 1980’s, unbeknownst to me.
Today there is much talk and fear too, that we’re heading into the Apocalypse. Yet some of the Orthodox theologians that I read, once I began my apprenticeship in iconography, wrote that the Apocalypse is not one event. In fact they estimated that we’ve been living in the unfolding Apocalypse since World War 1. But no one really knows, even Jesus said, only the Father knows... “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
Mark 13:32
When I began to create icons my Dad would always tease me with, “Willy, how come icons have such old babies?” I’d try to answer, but it didn’t make much sense to either of us, until I began to grasp the Orthodox Theology about the Child Jesus they always call “Christ Emmanuel.”
Next to St Andrei Rublev, and the tender, childlike Muscovite Mannerism of Dionysius, my favorite iconographer is Simon Fyodorovich Ushakov, 1626 -1686. He was heavily criticized by the conservative Russian priests, such as Archpriest Avvakum, for his “lascivious works of the devil...and fleshy saints.” Personally, I found him deeply influenced by the “sfumato” technique (delicate shading) made most famous by Leonardo da Vinci. Ushakov’s icons are uniquely beautiful and have an infinite tenderness you cannot forget. One of the wonderful thing about iconography is that you are supposed to copy other icons, and the masters. I have tried to copy three of Ushakov’s, and just trying, was an incredible education for me; perhaps like a singer, who may sing a song made famous by someone else, but still cannot help making it her own. So I looked for the most beautiful Child Jesus I could find in iconography to paint as a gift for Dad, while he was in the hospital nearing death. I didn’t finish before his death 25 November 1997, and he never got to see this Child, but I’m sure he sees Him now.
I know everyone has been moving through this Advent with many troubling catastrophes like the Kentucky tornado devastations, the stalking of a new variant, omicron, or the almost daily school shootings. These are our brothers and sisters so how can we not ache for them ? Another brilliant contemporary commentator on the Book of Revelation, Craig Koester, has told us that Revelation is a very hopeful book about the plans God has for all of us, his children. As we enter this fourth week of Advent I offer this Radiant Child Jesus (an attempted copy of Ushakov) who promised us in the last book of the Bible “... He who sat on the throne said ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’”
Revelation 21:5
“O Come Thou Wisdom from on high, who ord’rest all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show, and teach us in Her ways to go...”
second verse of “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”
One of the things I know for certain, is that God always hears our prayers; always. And though I don’t know who is going to read this, I promise to pray for you all during this last very Holy Week of Advent . And I know He will hear me .
Fr William Hart McNichols 💮 December 2021

Cristo Emmanuel

July 29th, 2022

St John the Forerunner (the Baptist)
🎶 “Well, get up John go down to the Jordan / get up John prepare the way/ Man from Galilee is waiting / You must meet him there today/
Get up John go tell my people / This will be a holy day / Tell them of the Jew that’s waiting / That the Savior’s on his way/
John / You’ve been chosen / John / Go unafraid / John / I’ll go with you / John the Baptist / This is the day/ Well get up John go tell Jerusalem / Savior’s waiting on the shore / Baptize him in the river Jordan / I’ll send a Dove from Heaven’s door/
John / You’ve been chosen / John / Go unafraid / John / I’ll go with you / John the Baptist / This is the day/ Well get up John / Your work is finished / Daylight breaks the soldiers come / You will die for me tomorrow / Welcome home your race is run /John / You’ve been chosen / John / Go unafraid / John / I’ll go with you / John the Baptist / This is the day. “
By Bill Monroe 1953
(sung by Emmylou Harris’ live album “At the Ryman” 1992)
This icon was commissioned by Fr Svetozar Kraljevic at the time he was living in Medjugorie . On my first visit there (I was blessed by my late friend Mimi, to be taken there 4 times) one evening Fr Svet drove up to the house where we were staying . He said he wanted an icon of Our Lady of Medjugorie (Croatian, Medugorska Gospa or Queen of Peace, Kralijica Mira) I was hesitant because an icon is rather formal and having met a few of the visionary’s and listening to them describe Mary’s radiant youthful unearthly beauty, I was naturally intimidated. I told Fr Svet no one could create that kind of beauty- inside and out - that has been given to Mary. But he insisted saying that no one sees the apparitions of Mary except the few. He said they need an icon to gaze into, even though there are very “realistic” pictures and statues of Mary all over the area. So I went ahead and created two icons; the second was John the Baptist because the first apparition occurred on the feast of the Birth of John the Baptist, June 24 (1981); signaling that Mary is the Prophet preparing us for the return of Christ as King. Medjugorie has been under investigation since 1981, and yet since 1981 over 40 million people have made the pilgrimage to this tiny village in Bosnia, Herzegovina. Pope Francis is skeptical of the longevity of the apparitions (they are still going on today) but believes in the initial ones. He did say that there are millions of people who go there, convert and change their lives, “this is a spiritual and pastoral fact that cannot be denied.” So the official position of the church is not to approve or condemn the apparitions as being supernatural. I myself felt her presence there. I can only describe it as the feeling when somehow you know, when someone is looking at you, right near or behind you, and you turn around or toward them and see them. I felt that way. And when we’d leave for example, to go to Dubrovnik, her presence was gone. As soon as we’d return, I felt her again. I’m sure if you talk to anyone who has “been called” to make the pilgrimage, they will have many stories to tell you. When Mimi asked me to go with her and a friend I was very skeptical, but I cannot deny after my 4 visits, that the desire to come ever closer to God, and a perpetual desire for conversion; these continue to lovingly touch my life since my first visit.
The tradition of icons is that almost always the artist does not sign the work because it is believed the Holy Spirit is the author/painter. I have several books of Greek, Russian and Siberian icons. I saw this beautiful, powerful icon of St John the Forerunner in a Greek book, signed by the Greek master iconographer Michail Damaskenos 1530-1595. It is such an honor to attempt to copy any of the exquisite masterpieces of the past. You live with the presence of the iconographer and you learn so much by looking into their work, during the time it takes you to complete the copy. I have my favorites, of course St Andrei Rublev, Dionisius the Wise of the Novgorod school, Simon Ushakov the 17th century master who was so influenced by the west, that an archpriest Avvakum regarded his icons as “lascivious works of the devil.” Then there are the Greeks, Michail Damaskenos, Photios Kontoglu, and finally, my Russian American teacher, Friar Robert Lentz, OFM. At this “kairos time” in my life I find myself very drawn to Dionisius the Wise, and wish I could just spend the rest of my life copying his work ! He is so deceptively pure and simple.
John the Baptist has been painted, sculpted, portrayed in plays, films, and in the Bill Monroe song I began with. A couple of my favorite images of him are in the National Gallery in Washington DC by Andrea del Verrocchio and the Caravaggio in the Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City, Missouri. John begins the summer with his birthday and ends summer with the feast of his death August 29. I love Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich’s visions of his life, and also the contemporary British historian and theologian, Joan E. Taylor’s book on John. Both women have fed me for years. Who can imagine Jesus’ fear and anguish when he heard of John’s murder ? “ Despite this exalted ministry, the Baptist’s work is one of humility. At the height of his apostolic activity, John does not seek to grow his own ministry apart from the Incarnate Word. He is content directing others to Christ. He aims to make Christ known as he himself fades into the background. Augustine praises John’s clarity in mission : ‘he identified himself, he pointed out the difference between Christ and himself, he humbled himself.’ In our Christian life, we need to imitate St John the Baptist. Whether it be on our lips or in our hearts, we echo the words of the Baptist: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’” (Jn. 3:30) written for “Faith and Culture: The Journal of the Augustine Institute” by Ben Akers. This is also, I believe, the perfect definition of iconography and the mission of iconographers.
Fr Bill McNichols 💮 end of August 2021

Mother of God Asking For Humility

November 11th, 2021

Mother of God Asking For Humility (The Queenship of Mary)
“From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. And never has that hope wavered which they place in the Mother of the Divine King, Jesus Christ; nor has that faith ever failed by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a Queen.”
Pope Pius XII from the encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (To the Queen of Heavens)
(On the Feast of the Maternity of the Mother of God, 11 October 1954)
“Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To thee do we cry poor banished children of Eve (and Adam): to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears . Turn then most gracious advocate thine eyes of mercy toward us. And after this our exile show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Amen “
(Traditional prayer)
A most blessed and hopeful feast of the Coronation of the Mother of God !
Fr Bill McNichols 💮 August 2021

San Lorenzo del Fuego

November 11th, 2021

San Lorenzo del Fuego : (Retablo of St Lawrence of the Fire
The philosophers and the orators have fallen into oblivion; the masses do not even know the names of the emperors and their generals; but everyone knows the names of the the martyrs, better than those of their most intimate friends.
“It is in these terms that Theodoret bishop of Cyrrhus sought to convey the extent of the triumph of Christianity: by the mid-fifth century, the cult of the saints had ringed the populations of the Mediterranean with the intimate invisible friends. ‘The Invisible Friend” - the “Intimate Friend” - these are terms on which Theodoret and his contemporaries dwelt lovingly in relation to the saints ... we shall touch upon the subtle transformation of immemorial beliefs that was involved when Mediterranean men and women, from the late fourth century onwards, turned with increasing explicitness for friendship, inspiration and protection in this life and beyond the grave, to invisible beings who were fellow humans they could invest with the precise and palpable features of beloved and powerful figures in their own society.”
From “The Cult of the Saints : It’s Rise and Function in Latin Christianity”
By Peter Brown
I think just of a few Christian and spiritual writers that for me combine “readability” with deep love, and affection for their subject and the kind of scholarship which sends you to an abundance of other sources, to learn more. Peter Brown, Valentin Tomberg, G.B. Caird, Monika Hellwig, Christopher Pramuk, Dorothee Soelle, James Martin, SJ, William Lynch, SJ, Melissa Raphael, Mirabai Starr, Kathy Hendricks, Noel Dermot O’Donoghue, Teilhard de Chardin, SJ, Iain Matthew (and also a follower of Eknath Easwaren,)Carol Lee Finders ...just a few. If a person can change the world then also a book can change your life.
Anything Peter Brown writes is that way for me. He’s transcendent, I believe, without knowing it. I think some of the great scholarly saints like Thomas Aquinas, or Edith Stein must have been the same way. It seems to me now that any “working-Christian” must often feel the heavy weight of being an Christian apologist to friends and even blood family, concerning beliefs. I believe too, that the desire to share your beliefs/loves comes naturally if you are given a “church-soul” as von Balthasar calls a person who loves the church so much that they speak of her, like people speak of the greatest loves in their lives.
This is how I encounter Peter Brown’s book on the very beginning of the deep love and veneration of the saints. It began with the early martyrs. Just imagine if you were living then, these would be people you either knew or had heard of living near by you; friends, family. They’d be Agnes, Pancratius, Lawrence, Tarcissius, Sebastian, Cecilia.
The legend of the most compassionate Lawrence the Deacon is filled with the “fuego” of the early church, and how they they regarded earthly rulers to be continually passing-fleeting; don’t ever give your soul to them. Yet people have done just that for centuries, and ended up being shadows of themselves and (to them) surprisingly and shockingly betrayed, when the present emperor, always has no clothes.
Lawrence shocked me, as a child, and the older I get the more shocking he becomes. He drags the Roman guards (police) when they demand that he take them to the place where the riches of the church are kept. He goes to a house of the homeless and proudly explains to the proud boys that these homeless, are the treasures of the Church. They are angry and humiliated and arrest Lawrence. He is later sentenced to die, not just for being a Christian but for being so disdaining, so naively cavalier about the reigning few, and his seriously not funny situation; the fact he’d soon be brutally tortured and murdered. But Lawrence wasn’t having any of the imaginary absolutes. Filled and afire with the Holy Spirit, he was reminding them and us, of part of the essence of the Gospel. After his arrest, he was sentenced to die laid upon a gridiron; and burned to death. And to add salt to the wound he managed to joke while being burnt on the gridiron,
“Turn me over, I think I’m done on this side.” If you ponder, really ponder this martyrdom story, concerning today, you’ll find a wealth of things to pray about. I know his legend has never revealed so much to me as it has this year.
St Lawrence is very present and wildly, impossibly relevant as a saint for us today.
I’ll continue to tell you why, but if you really pray about the contemporary graces of his legend it will open you to a possible spiritual reality of our times or any times on earth.
Here’s the story of the creation of this retablo:
“If you take care of the people, they will take care of you.” St Francis
This is a bit exaggerated in my case but in Taos, I loved the people so much and I felt they really loved me too. It was one of the best experience of community I’ve ever, or probably will ever, have. I have never lived in a Matriarchal Society so I had no idea of what that was like. If you think about the concept of a Matriarchal Society, you might begin to imagine what the life and death issues and values might be. There was a teenager in our community who took it upon himself to make sure I had a continual supply of wood for the winter. He was mature beyond his age and approached me with old fashioned reverence, but as an equal; a typically Northern New Mexican intuition about outsiders who for centuries, did not understand or perform a proskyinesis ((bowing low) to their ancient, God-given, wisdom. Lorenzo Herrera was taking a class in woodworking in school. He had made/carved a beautiful retablo board, and brought it to me to paint a retablo of his patron santo . At that time I was living in the guest Casita of a family situated near a well traveled road, and the kids I knew from church, used to honk when they’d drive by. Because I had so many commissions I was not getting to the retablo. I had these beautiful hand-made arched windows in my studio and Lorenzo would drive in and look in my studio window and there would be his retablo, waiting, on the floor up against a cabinet, undone. I finally began because of Lorenzo’s enthusiasm. Now you see the finished retablo, but I can’t say enough about that time (14 years) and how it continues to guide me. Someday I’ll try.
Fr Bill McNichols 💮 August 2021

Our Lady and the Holy Child Visit St Ignatius the Convalescent

Santa Rosa of Lima, Patroness of the Americas
Rosa of Lima (1586–1617) is often called the patroness of America because she was the first saint to be canonized in the Americas (1671). Her feast day is August 23. Rose is a beloved saint among Spanish- speaking people, especially in New Mexico. The city of Santa Rosa is located a couple hours drive east of Albuquerque .
As a young woman, upon discovering the life of Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), Rose sought to emulate her. As a result, she became a lay Dominican. She was known for her rigorous practices of asceticism and penance, much to the dismay of her family and loved ones. Even today the reality of her religious practices make people uncomfortable. Such concern prompted the famous theologian Hans Urs Von Balthasar to ask the mystic Adrienne Von Speyr about her practices. Drawing on the authority of her mystical experience, Von Speyr informed him that Rosa’s practices were fine because her intentions were out of love for God.
We must keep a couple of things in mind with respect to her austere practices. First, Rosa would use her penances for the sake of others who were suffering. Those people that Rosa would intercede for— the ones she would literally suffer for— would often be healed. In this way she was similar to a bodhisattva or shamanic healer. Second, there is a sense in which great saints are often extreme in some aspects of their lives. This does not necessarily mean that others should literally emulate the kinds of practices they carry out. Shortly after the death of St. Francis, for example, the pope forbade the Franciscans to subscribe to the saint’s rigorous interpretation and practice of poverty.
Bill had conceived this image of Santa Rosa for several years before actually completing it. A labor of love, when he finally completed the piece he was not sure what to do with it. Tragically, the events of Sandy Hook Elementary School and the brutal murder of the twenty children and six teachers and staff in Newtown, Connecticut, occurred on December 14, 2012. This would provide an opportunity. On this point, I would like to share a personal anecdote. Shortly after the murders in Newtown, I had a dream that there was a statue of St. Rosa in my living room. The front of the statue was covered with green vomit, as if St. Rosa had puked on the front of her habit. I interpreted this as a visceral response to the ugly violence that had occurred in Newtown. I relayed this dream to Bill because of his devotion to St. Rosa and because I knew he was deeply upset by the murders as well. Unbeknown to Bill or myself at the time, the Catholic parish in Newtown was named St. Rose Parish. Upon learning this fact, Bill immediately sent the icon of St. Rosa to the parish in Connecticut in the hopes that it might assist as a healing image for the members of the community.
In the image St. Rosa stands on the earth in her Dominican habit with her feet on the northern part of the Americas, though she is the patroness of both continents. Given that this icon was completed prior to the events in Newtown, it is perhaps prophetic that her left foot is close to that region of New England. The rose stems and petals of her intercession fall gently upon the planet. The light of the moon, an image of the Mother of God, is near. The soft hue of rose permeates the picture, providing a healing and contrasting image to the red blood of violence.
Why is she situated in the cosmos? Perhaps this offers a more expansive view, lifting the people up and giving a larger view of life. Is there life on other planets? If so, do those beings face the brutality of violence, or are they perhaps living in harmony? When we are in grief and pain it is always helpful try to take on a larger view. In his anguish of losing everything Job complained to God, and God responded by asking if he was there when the stars were made (Job 39:3). In the wake of the murders in Newtown we are faced with deeply disturbing realities. Often such anguishing questions, like Job’s anguish, remain unanswered. The intercession of Rosa of Lima and the image she provides offer the hope of healing and transformation for our world.
John Dadosky
Image to Insight

Santa Rosa of Lima - Patroness of the Americas

January 22nd, 2021

For the Feast of the Epiphany Christ Emmanuel-Cordero de Dios

April 3rd, 2019

The Holy Family

April 3rd, 2019

The Holy Family
from "Image to Insight" book
by John D. Dadosky
This icon was commissioned by the Holy
Family Hospital of Bethlehem Foundation
(Washington, D.C.) for the hospital by the
same name in Bethlehem, Israel, funded by the
Knights of Malta. As of this writing, their website
purports to have delivered sixty thousand
Muslim, Jewish, and Christian babies since 1990.
The hospital does not refuse patients and particularly
serves the Palestinian refugee community.
Patients pay only what they can afford. Located
near the place where Christians believe that Jesus
was born, the hospital embodies a sign of hope,
commemorating not only hope for new life in the
birth of a child but for the peace that is the fruit
of Christ’s reign—a peace for all peoples, especially
between the three religions that share the
same sacred geography.
Much of the inspiration concerning this icon
surrounds the figure of St. Joseph. Leading up
to its creation, Bill had been reading the eighteenth-
century mystic Maria Baij’s Life of St.
Joseph as well as a spiritual reflection titled Joseph:
The Shadow of the Father by the former chaplain of
Lourdes, Fr. Andrew Doze.
Private revelations in the Church do not have
an official status; any authority they have is mystical
and personal rather than doctrinal. However,
in Baij’s account, Bill found a welcome humanization
of Joseph, a saint we know relatively little
about. Her mystical account of his life makes it
easy to identify with him, as when she states, “It
was permitted by God that Joseph have this anxious
feeling constantly present within his heart.
Joseph accepted it with resignation and never
appeared outwardly to be restless or disturbed.”1
This passage reflects St. Joseph’s sense of responsibility
and his human insecurities at the responsibilities
that he was given.
Bill became further enthralled with the spirituality
of St. Joseph when he read the spiritual
theology Joseph: Shadow of the Father. Therein
Doze describes his unique vocation as follows:
Joseph disappears at the same time as Mary
and Jesus or, rather, Jesus and Mary disappear
thanks to him. He keeps in the background
and conceals at the same time. He is hidden
and he hides. His name is the present participle
of the Hebrew verb meaning “to increase”
and “to cut off.” Jesus will “increase” in
Joseph’s safe keeping, he will increase astonishingly
. . . meaning “to increase,” “to cause
to grow.” But truly, what first strikes us about
Joseph is a certain way of “cutting back,” of
taking away. He takes away the Incarnation
from our view. Bossuet expressed this magnificently:
“The apostles are lights to show Jesus
Christ to the world; Joseph is a veil to cover
him and, behind this veil, are hidden Mary’s
virginity and the greatness of the Saviour of
souls.”
To hide, to cover, to take away, by removing
this child entrusted to him by the Father
from a hostile or immature world; that is the
first strong impression the gospel makes on us
when we are searching for Joseph there.
Image to Insight book available at Tattered Cover in Denver and Amazon online.

Christmas card illustration 1987

April 3rd, 2019

Down in Yon Forrest ( An ancient Carol as sung by Joan Baez)
Christmas card illustration 1987
Down in yon forest there's stands a hall
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
It's covered all over with purple and pall
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
In that hall there stands a bed
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
It's covered all over with scarlet so red
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
At the bed side there lies a stone
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
The sweet virgin Mary knelt upon
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Under that bed there runs a flood
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
The one half runs water
An other runs blood
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
At the bed's foot there grows a thorn
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
Whichever blows blossoms since He was born
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything
Over that bed the moon shines bright
The bells of paradise I heard them ring
Denoting our Saviour was born this night
And I love my Lord Jesus above anything

Our Lady of the New Advent, Gate of Heaven

April 3rd, 2019

Our Lady of the New Advent, Gate of Heaven
from "Image to Insight book" by John D. Dadosky
In the winter of 1991, Bill’s work on an icon
titled Christ Emmanuel was interrupted by his
first and perhaps most important commission
by Cardinal Stafford of Denver. Stafford wanted
to honor the theme of John Paul II’s papacy of
the New Advent, which the pope pronounced in
his first encyclical Redemptoris Hominis (1979) in
advance of the new millennium. The pontiff concludes
the encyclical with the following words:
Only prayer can prevent all these great succeeding
tasks and difficulties from becoming
a source of crisis and make them instead the
occasion and, as it were, the foundation for
ever more mature achievements on the People
of God’s march towards the Promised Land
in this stage of history approaching the end of
the second millennium. Accordingly, as I end
this meditation with a warm and humble call
to prayer, I wish the Church to devote herself
to this prayer, together with Mary the Mother
of Jesus, as the Apostles and disciples of the
Lord did in the Upper Room in Jerusalem
after his Ascension. Above all, I implore Mary,
the heavenly Mother of the Church, to be so good
as to devote herself to this prayer of humanity’s
new Advent, together with us who make up the
Church, that is to say the Mystical Body of her
Only Son. [Emphasis added.]
Bill presented three images of Our Lady of
the Sign to Stafford to consider as copies for
the Lady of the New Advent. Stafford chose the
nineteenth-century icon of Our Lady of the Sign
to be the model. Bill chose the face of Virgin
Orans, based on a thirteenth-century icon, Virgin
Blachermittissa, currently in the Tretyakov gallery
in Moscow. He placed the boy Jesus in the oval
mandorla. Jesus holds the Colorado state flower,
the columbine. Behind the two figures are the
Rocky Mountains. The dark hair and skin on the
Jesus figure provides a more inculturated image,
reflective of many residents and immigrants in
the western United States.
The theology of the New Advent is encapsulated
in the following prayer, which makes up an
additional verse for the advent hymn “I Wonder
as I Wander”:
When the Angel appeared to the Virgin in
wait,
Her “Yes” was the opening of Heaven’s gate.
Blessed among women her child would save,
The children of Adam from sin and the grave.3
In the nineteenth-century icon, from which
this icon takes some of its inspiration, Mary’s
cuffs are gold. These reflect the liturgical vestments
of the Orthodox church when celebrating
the Eucharist. The color of her robe is purple,
which is the ecclesiastical color for the season of
Advent.
This image is part of an exhibit in Denver at The McNichols Civic Center Building through Jan 6
to buy catalog from exhibit go to:
http://www.lulu.com/…/light…/paperback/product-23861739.html
to purchase Image to Insight book got to:
https://www.amazon.com/Image-Insight-William-H…/…/0826359132

Holy World Evangelist Thomas Merton

April 3rd, 2019

Holy World Evangelist Thomas Merton
by John D. Dadosky
Thomas Merton (1915–1968) was perhaps
one of the most charismatic and complex
personalities in American Catholicism during
the past century. Since his unexpected death in
1968, his influence has grown increasingly among
Christians and members of other religions.
Recently the one hundredth anniversary of his
birth was celebrated.
Throughout his life, Merton was starved for
the feminine. His mother died when he was
young, and there were few women directly in his
life, especially after he entered the monastery at
age twenty-seven. Five years before he met the
nurse with whom he would have an illicit affair, a
prose poem titled “Hagia Sophia” all but prophesizes
their relationship.
Reflecting on this icon the theologian Christopher
Pramuk states,
It seems to me that Bill’s icon beautifully
reflects Merton’s witness as a marginal person,
standing at the margins, standing on his own
feet. Yet Merton’s gaze, perfectly at home outside
his hermitage, is not that of a rugged loner,
indifferent to his visitor. His gaze welcomes and
invites me in. It is She, Sophia, who welcomes
and invites me in: the divine Wisdom-child, the
Holy Spirit of Life, in flame dancing playfully
over Merton’s head. She and Merton are one,
and we are three, encircling in time and space
like Rublev’s Trinity. I am at peace.3
My oldest sister, Anne Cahill, is a big fan of
Merton and has always felt a special connection
with him. It is a kinship we share, and so I was
delighted when she commissioned this icon
of Merton from Bill. The icon depicts Merton
standing outside of his hermitage in Gethsemane,
Kentucky. He was a pioneer in many ways but
especially in that he was the first one to convince
the Trappist monks in the United States to allow
hermits. The image was inspired by a photograph.
He wears a hat with a coat over his Trappist’s
habit that depicts how he brought his own
uniqueness and creativity to his vocation. The
flame suggests that he was led by the Holy Spirit
and that we have something to learn from his life,
writings, and example.
There is a tendency of scholars and religious
leaders in the West to become preoccupied with
Merton’s personal “failings” as a monk. However,
it is interesting to contrast this with the attitudes
of the Eastern monks, who often intuitively
sensed the depth of his spiritual insight. One of
those monks of great stature and repute, upon
meeting Merton for the first time, referred to him
as a “naturally risen Buddha.

Mother Of God Light In All Darkness

April 3rd, 2019

World AIDS Day 2018
https://www.cdc.gov/features/worldaidsday/
“Mother of God
Light in All Darkness,
shelter Him our flame of hope
with your tender hands.
And in our times of
dread and nightmares,
let Him be our dream of comfort.
And in our times of
physical pain and suffering,
let Him be our healer.
And in our times of separation
from God and one another,
let Him be our communion.
Amen”
Mother Of God Light In All Darkness
In September 1983, I was asked to be the celebrant for the first Mass for people with HIV-AIDS in New York City. Thus, began a ministry at St. Vincent’s Hospice in Manhattan that would last for seven years. I had painted a large image concerning the suffering of people with HIV-AIDS in 1984, called “The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts To The Child.” As soon as I began working on icons I was commissioned to do this icon and I wrote the accompanying prayer, which has been used by many people, no matter what it is they are suffering from; they feel held by Mother and Child.
– Fr. Bill McNichols

Hebrew Name Of Yahweh-adam Kadmon

April 3rd, 2019

“The Lord is close to the broken-hearted: he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.” Psalm 34:18
We grieve and mourn with all our Jewish sisters and brothers in Pittsburgh and throughout the world, in these days of the most recent murders and ongoing tragedy. As we approach November 2, the day of the Holy Souls , we beg them from their place near God, to intercede for us and give us the Wisdom to end the increasing daily violence due to the blindness of prejudice and bigotry.
The Name of God, Yahweh
“I am that I am”
“The special Name of God that was given to Moses, in vertical arrangement, as the likeness of Adam Kadmon, the primordial (human) man... This figure of the Kavod or Divine Glory... composed of fire is spoken of in Ezekiel as the appearance of a man... the Divine Name as Adam Kadmon.”
– From the book Kabbalah by Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi
Whenever I do a power point presentation I always begin with this powerful image for us to contemplate. For me, it is the burning presence of God inside us all.
– Fr. Bill McNichols

The Passion of Matthew Shepard. June 14, 2016

April 3rd, 2019

Today October 12th is the 20th Anniversary of the death of Matthew Shepard. His ashes will be interred in the National Episcopal Cathedral in Washington DC.
The Passion of Matthew Shepard
The entrapment and murder of the 24-year-old gay man, Matthew Shepard, in Laramie, Wyoming on October 7, 1998 truly shocked the world. The Resurrection part of this boy’s brutal beating and crucifixion on a deer fence, is that it brought about a conversation in the minds and hearts of many people who were unaware of the violence and prejudice that most LGBTQ people live with as a part of daily life. October 7 is a feast of Our Blessed Mother. In Catholic symbolism Mary is the Moon, the reflected light of the Son. I placed Mary in the sky when I heard that Matthew’s mother, Judy Shepard, hoped he did not die alone. This image is dedicated to the memory of the thousands of LGBTQ youth who commit suicide each year and to the countless others who are injured or murdered. Maryknoll Magazine commissioned this image as part of a Lenten issue on contemporary passions of people all over the world.
– Fr. Bill McNichols

St Francis Flowering Wound

April 3rd, 2019

St Francis Flowering Wound
“I’ll hold out my hand and
my heart will be in it ...”
(From the song “For All We Know”
By J. Coots and Sam M. Lewis 1934)
On August 15, 1224, Francis of Assisi traveled some 90 miles north of Assisi to bemoan his sins, and how much he felt his mission with his young order, the Friars Minor... had dramatically failed. The poor man who would not accept any lavish gifts had accepted a mountain, Mt. La Verna, from Count Orlando Chiusi della Verna. So he and Friar Leo slowly made their way up the great mesa, and he instructed Friar Leo to keep watch, as Francis wanted complete privacy to be with his Most High Lord. Somewhere in the middle of September, (the feast of the Stigmata used to be celebrated on September 17, the same day as St Hildegard’s day) St Francis received a vision no one has ever seen before or since. He had asked two graces of Jesus, so he could experience everything possible of what it meant to follow Jesus...literally. (0ften when I introduce the depth of St Francis’ life, I’ll say he was the only true fundamentalist Christian that ever lived) the two final graces he asked for were :
To know and experience the pain of Jesus Crucified and
To know the love of Jesus , and how He could forgive from the horrifying pain of the Cross ?
The answer to his two petitions was the appearance of the Crucified and Seraphic Christ, who left Francis with the five wounds. And so now Francis felt the pain of the Crucifixion and the seraphic love that was “forgiveness incarnate.”
I refer you all to “The Five Considerations On The Stigmata,” said to be one of the most beautiful writings in all of Italian literature. It is available on the internet. I know when you read it you’ll see why it has kept this reputation for centuries. The image I’m presenting for Francis’ feast was originally a drawing for a flyer advertising a play about the Stigmata around 1984. This play was put together by Roberta Nobleman and I can still see a woman named Dolly, who played the Seraphic Christ, as she gently flew across the stage towards Francis with loving intention in her eyes.
The image is simply Francis’ hand with the wound flowering. The flower signifies how Francis’ blood healed
many sick animals and people during the last two years of his life; he died at sunset on October 3, 1226. Wounds can make us either bitter or compassionate. It takes a long time to grow from bitter to compassionate , but we have so many living examples of women and men who have managed this task. We all have people we admire who have shared with us their lives of continual growth. I wonder, especially today in these tragically divided times if I, if you, if all of us can begin to learn to use our wounds to heal one another?
“Dear Lord Our God,
You renewed the marks of the suffering of your Son in the body of our holy Father Francis in order to inflame our hearts with the fire of your love. Teach us always to glory in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen “
Sunset: October 3, 2018
Fr Bill McNichols

St. Michael of the Apocalypse

April 3rd, 2019

St. Michael of the Apocalypse
For the Feast of the Archangels 29 September
***On 20 September the 100th Anniversary of the Stigmata of St. Padre Pio 1918-2018
“St Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle;
be our protection against the wickedness
and snares of the devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
And do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host,
By the power of God,
Thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits
Who prowl about the world seeking the ruin
of souls.
Amen
After seeing a terrifying vision Pope Leo XXIII wrote this prayer we used to say at the end of every Mass. You can invoke St Michael every day with this powerful prayer.
St John Bosco also had a vision that in the End Times there would be two things left for the survival of Christians; the Eucharist and the Rosary. St Francis would prepare for his favorite saint’s feastday for 40 days, calling it St Michael’s Lent, from August 15-September 29. It was in the middle of that “Lent” in 1224, on Mt La Verna, that he received a vision of the Seraphic Christ and was the first human being to be wounded with the Stigmata. Since that time St Padre Pio received the Wounds on September 20, 1918. It has been mostly women, in the history of Christianity, who have been given the Wounds and have become “another Christ.”
One of the most beautiful pieces of writing ever written in Italian literature is the anonymous work concerning St Francis:
“The Five Considerations On The Stigmata.”
This is a rendition of a Russian icon of St Michael, afire in red and riding his red horse announcing the end of the world, with a cloud for his stirrup. Now begins the final thrusting into hell of Satan with the iron rod (mentioned in Revelation 2:27) of the Cross. He blows his trumpet, and swings his censor full of incense. He holds the Gospel book and a rainbow arches above, going from hand-to-the-hand holding the Holy Gospel.
The Chris Emmanuel sits before an Altar of Preparation,(preparation for what is to come...)with the Gospel book and a Cross. As in the Apocalypse (Revelation) on the right side, the Moon turns blood red.
When I first saw this icon I was dazzled by the masterful beauty of the original, the movement and fierce confidence of the Heavenly Prince, the absolutely gorgeous colors and....... the long awaited message or teaching of the icon, of God’s promise of the defeat of Satan and the arrival of the Kingdom of God.
I can suggest 5 books if you are looking for commentaries on the Book of Revelation, (my personal favorite first...)
*The Revelation of St John the Divine (meaning Theologian)
By G.B. Caird
*The Nightmare of God
By Daniel Berrigan, SJ
* Beside the Sea of Glass
By Daniel Berrigan, SJ
* Revelation: 22 Studies For Individuals And Groups
By N.T. Wright
* Surprised By Scripture
By N.T. Wright
This icon was commissioned by the Church of St Michael in Socorro, New Mexico.
September 2018

The Bride - The Church

September 9th, 2018

“The Bride : The Church”
At the heart of most of the recent Marian apparitions is the prophecy that the Church will undergo death and resurrection to be conformed to the Lamb of God. This past August a staggering new pageant of victims of violent abuse came forward as the Retinue of the Lamb. New Mexico had gone through this same horror in the early 1990’s, before most every other diocese. During that time I had to find an image of the Church that has always existed and will always exist . I turned to Cardinal Henri de Lubac, SJ’s written masterpiece “The Splendor of the Church” ( which he wrote while being silenced by the Church) in which he identifies the image of the Bride as eternal, coming originally from the Letter to the Ephesians by St Paul, as well as the Hebrew Bible’s beautiful marriage symbolism with God.
In my image of the Bride are representations of the Trinity. The Bride is always young moving toward Jesus Christ, her Groom, through two thousand years of the existence of the Church. She is pregnant with the ever-new members of the Church to be born until the return of Christ the King. On all sides she is threatened by violence from within the Church and without. But, the protective Radiance of the Trinity surrounds her, and she cannot be touched or harmed. This is the only image of the Church ( as well as the millions of loving Christians that still love her in their frailty too ) that gives me comfort in our very vulnerable and fragile world. I hope you will find some loving icons of guides in this exhibit , none who are perfect, but still (while they were on this earth) moving forward towards the Groom, Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Fr Bill McNichols
For the Exhibit in Denver 20 September 2018 “Light In All Darkness”

St Tarcisius of Rome

September 9th, 2018

St Tarcisius of Rome

The Invisible Companion
(Patron of Children who are bullied)
“The philosophers and the orators have fallen into oblivion; the masses do not even know the names of the emperors and their generals; but everyone knows the names of the martyrs, better than those of their most intimate friends.”
It is in these terms that Theodoret bishop of Cyrrhus sought to convey the extent of the triumph of Christianity: by the mid-fifth century, the cult of the saints had ringed the populations of the Mediterranean with intimate invisible friends. ‘The invisible friend’ - the ‘intimate friend’ - these are terms on which Theodoret and his contemporaries dwelt lovingly in relation to the saints. What we shall follow in this chapter is the manner in which new invisible companions came to crowd in around the men and women of late antiquity and the early middle ages. In so doing, we shall touch upon the subtle transformation of immemorial beliefs that was involved when Mediterranean men and women, from the late fourth century onwards, turned with increasing explicitness for friendship, inspiration and protection in this life and beyond the grave, to invisible beings who were fellow humans and whom they could invest with precise and palpable features of beloved and powerful figures in their own society.
From The Cult of the Saints : It’s Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
By Peter Brown
The legend of St Tarcisius of Rome is one of the most memorable of the early child martyrs and we would probably know him a lot better if his feast did not fall on the Assumption of the Mother of God, August 15th. Tarcisius was a young boy thought to be anywhere from the age of 10-14 years old, who lived in the third century during the persecutions of Emperor Valerian. Because the early Christians were forced to hide in the Roman catacombs, and have their services beneath the ground, someone, usually a Deacon would be required to take the Eucharist from Mass and carry it to the Christians in prison. One day, for whatever reason, a Deacon was unavailable and so little Tarcisius was asked to carry the Eucharist to the prisoners. While he was on his way a group of Roman boys grew curious about what the child was carrying. They stopped him and demanded to see what he held so close to himself. Tarcisius refused to let the bullies touch the Eucharist and they began to beat him until he fell face down, protecting the Eucharist, and was ultimately beaten to death. A Roman soldier is said to have stopped the boys, who ran off and then he carried Tarcisius away, the child still holding tight to his Lord. For this reason he is a patron of altar servers and children who today, more than ever, experience bullying.
There is a novel called “Fabiola : The Church of the Catacombs” written by Cardinal Wiseman in 1854, which makes use of actual young martyrs as characters, like Sts. Agnes, Emmerentiana, Sebastian and Pancratius. This novel greatly influenced my childhood, and introduced me to these young people who were so extraordinarily courageous. The model for this icon is Calvin Rupoli, my greatnephew who is now 11 years old.
We all have and hold Christ inside our hearts and souls . St Tarcisius help us to hold Him close during these dark times and let His light shine out with great brilliance and courage from us all.
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
15 August 2018

St Vasily the Holy Fool of Moscow

August 10th, 2018

St Vasily the Holy Fool of Moscow
“If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool.”
1 Corinthians 3:18

St Vasily, the Russian Orthodox saint, is also known as ‘yurodivy’ or holy fool for Christ.
He was born of serfs in a village near Moscow in December 1468. Legends say he was born on the portico of the local church. As a young apprentice shoemaker, he became incensed at the Russian government’s carelessness and disregard, especially towards the poor and sick. He was known for mocking the Tsar, then Ivan the Terrible to provoke change and ran naked through Moscow’s snow filled streets, weighed down with chains.
The Tsar and high-ranking government officials tried to cajole Vasily with gifts, to silence him,but he gave everything away to those in need. He was clairvoyant and often warned people of their future tragedies, to beg them to become humble before God. Upon his death, August 2 1557, the humiliated Ivan the Terrible served as his pall bearer and then commissioned the magnificent church of St Vasily (St Basil) in Red Square, the Church that you see almost every night on the news, with the glorious multi-colored domes of the Holy Spirit’s tongues of flame, that we call “onion domes.”
I suppose that the closest thing we have to Holy Fools in the western church would be St Francis of Assisi and especially his most memorable foolish Friars, Brother Juniper and Brother John the Simple, or St Benedict Joseph Labre.
Troparion for the feast of St Vasily the Holy Fool of Moscow:
“Your life, O Basil (Vasily) was true and your chastity undefiled/ In fasting, vigilance and exposure to heat and frost/You subdued your flesh for the sake of Christ/ Therefore your countenance shone with the brilliance of the sun./Today the faithful glorify your Holy falling-asleep./ Implore Christ to deliver us from all bondage, dissension and war./ And to grant mercy to our souls.
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
August 2018

Our Lady of Mt Carmel

August 10th, 2018

A blessed feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel to all the Carmelites including the Third Order Carmelites. This order according to an ancient tradition was inspired by Holy Prophet Elijah, and has for centuries, given us such great saints as Simon Stock,Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of Lisieux, Elizabeth of the Trinity, Edith Stein, Titus Brandsma, to name just a few...
Our Lady of Mt Carmel pray for us!

Holy New Martyr Tsarevich Alexei

August 10th, 2018

“Many historians have suggested that Stalin was responsible for a death total of around 20 million, citing much higher victim totals from executions, Gulag camps, deportations and other causes. Simon Sebastian Montefiore suggested that Stalin was ultimately responsible for the deaths of between 20 and 25 million people ...
The dangers to journalists in Russia have been well known since the early 1990s but concern at the number of unsolved killings soared after Anna Politkovskaya’s murder in Moscow on 7 October 2006. While international monitors spoke of several dozen deaths, some sources within Russia talked of over two hundred fatalities...(and you can actually read this long list of names) The evidence has been examined and documented in two reports, published in Russian and English, by international organizations...The Remembrance Day Of Journalists Killed in the Line of Duty is observed on 15 December every year.”
(From the Wikipedia article on the list of journalists killed in Russia and deaths under Josef Stalin)
During my first year as an apprentice to the Russian American Master iconographer, Friar Robert Lentz, I was approached by a friend who suffered from haemophilia, to paint for him a patron he designated as, Alexei Romanov. I had been introduced to Russia in a way, by my Father who as governor had traveled to Russia in 1959 and met, and sparred with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. He brought home stories of Soviet Russia I will never forget. In November 1981, the Romanov Family was canonized as the first martyrs of the Revolution, along the servants who died with them and 860 other martyrs, as confessors and passion bearers of the faith. If you watch the 1971 film “Nicholas and Alexandria” and follow it with the 1965 classic “Dr Zhivago,” you get a cinematic history of Russia, before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution. I myself traveled to Magadan, Far East Russia in 1995. I was commissioned by Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage to paint an icon honoring the thousands of deaths in the death camp in Magadan, which was finally closed by Kruschev in 1955. This visit so haunting, beautiful and frightening has never left me. To prepare to do the icon of Our Lady of Magadan I read a most unique and unforgettable book by Nathaniel Davis, called “A Long Walk To Church.” It is a history of the Russian Orthodox Church during the most desperate and fearful times. Google Books has this to say, “Making use of the formerly secret archives of the Soviet government, and first-hand personal experiences, Nathaniel Davis describes how the Russian Orthodox Church hung on the brink of institutional extinction twice in the past sixty-five years. In 1939, only a few score widely scattered priests were still functioning openly...”
I think to see and feel the soul of Russia, I would suggest watching Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece, “Andrei Rublev” who is the patron of iconographers and whose feast In Russia is celebrated tomorrow, July 4th. The original film was so threatening to the soviets that it was cut dramatically, so that it didn’t make much sense, but was still considered a great film. The new restored version is 206 minutes, and you cannot help but see how Tarkovsky was trying to wake up the soul of Russia. It is a long,black and white, (lots of snow) contemplative view of medieval life in Russia for the first 200 minutes ! Then the last few minutes it bursts into color as Tarkovsky’s camera slowly, lovingly pores over Rublev’s Trinity and other icons.
A blessed 4th of July and feast of St Andrei Rublev!
Fr Bill McNichols
3 July 2018

Retablo de San Jose Obrero- Retablo of St Joseph the Worker

June 28th, 2018

Retablo de San Jose’ Obrero:
(Retablo of St Joseph the Worker)
This portrayal of St Joseph and the Child Jesus has a fairly long history. In October 1986 we had the first healing Mass for people with HIV-AIDS at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church on 14th street in Manhattan. The Masses were held every month until I left New York for Jesuit Tertianship in 1989. I think it was March of 1987 that the Mass fell on the traditional feastday of St Joseph’s death, March 19th. I used to draw illustrations for the Masses, or for greeting cards, or to illustrate my poetry book. This drawing of St Joseph dates back to that special Mass. Now, here is the part you have to keep secret until June 22...at least from our Pastor at St Joseph on the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. The parish commissioned a surprise icon from me to give to Monsignor Lambert Joseph Luna in honor of his 40th Anniversary of Ordination to the priesthood on June 24; which we will celebrate Friday June 22. I chose to do a retablo instead. Retablos are the traditional religious art form of New Mexico. Female painters are called Santeras and male painters are Santeros. This art is hundreds of years old, and these beautiful and holy retablos grace all the older churches in New Mexico, as well as the newer churches since this art is still very much alive. My friend Roberto Lavadie carved the frame. I painted the drawing I mentioned above from 1987, and added the Child’s cradle, some boards, and an aqua blue table with a royal blue border to bring Mary’s presence into the image. Finally let me quote one of the oldest known prayers to St. Joseph for you and all Fathers:
O St. Joseph, whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the throne of God. I place in you all my interests and desires. O St. Joseph, assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all the spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your heavenly power, I may offer my thanksgiving and homage to the most loving of Fathers.
O St Joseph, I never weary of contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms; I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart. Press Him in my name and kiss His fine head for me, and ask Him to return the kiss when I draw my dying breath.
Amen
With much love and gratitude to all our Fathers.
Happy Father’s Day !
Fr Bill McNichols - June 2018

St Joan of Arc and St Michael the Archangel

May 30th, 2018

St Joan of Arc and St Michael the Archangel
“Life isn’t about finding yourself.
Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
St Joan of Arc was burned at the stake on the morning of May 30 1431. She was nineteen years old. In Mary Gordon’s book on Joan she keeps referring to her as a teenager and continually makes you aware of how incredible her accomplishments were, for a girl or boy of that age. Mark Twain claims next to Jesus Christ, Joan is the most extraordinary person who ever lived. People have been mystified and have fallen in love with Joan for centuries. At this moment Bernard Shaw’s play St Joan is enjoying a very successful revival on Broadway with Candola Rashad playing Joan. As a child I saw Jean Seaburg on tv in the role, and when I lived in New York I saw Lyn Redgrave. Most recently the Parkland School survivor, Emma Gonzalez’ strong, beautiful and vulnerable face has been compared (in a New Yorker article) to Maria Falconetti who played Joan in Carl Dryer’s 1928 silent film classic, “The Passion of Joan of Arc.” This unforgettable film experience is still available on dvd in the Criterion Collection of great films. When I first saw the film as a theology student in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I remember hearing that Maria Falconetti dove so far into her portrayal of Joan that she never came back. When you see the film that’s very painfully obvious. When I was 11 years old I received a 18 inch plaster statue of Joan that I used to look at with wonder; she was a teenager which to an 11 year old seemed very mature and her facial expression was sure and strong. All through my life Joan has reappeared and it would take me forever to recount all the incidences but I’d like to name just a few. In 1971 I was a philosophy student in St. Louis about to move to Boston, where I simultaneously attended Boston University for art and Boston College for philosophy when I heard on a record, Judy Collins live concert in Central Park. The opening song was Leonard Cohen’s song “Joan of Arc.” Collins version from that concert is still my favorite. It was so hypnotic and haunting that it “set me onto a finding Joan adventure” which has never really ended. When I began painting icons I was commissioned in 1993, to paint Joan and St Michael, for St Michael’s Church in Bedford, Massachusetts. This is the icon you see now. Another dramatic encounter with Joan was reading Adrienne von Speyr’s intimate portrait of Joan in her “Book Of All Saints.” If I could, I’d quote the entire piece, it is so revealing, and like so much of Adrienne’s writings, brings you into a prayer and dialogue with Joan. Finally when I had my heart collapse on April 27, 2012, I came out of the induced coma on May 11th. I was still fairly delirious from the nine drugs in me but I remember when I found out it was May, instead of thinking naturally, it was the month of the Blessed Mother, I thought of Joan. My sister Mary was reading to me from the newly published book “The Maid and the Queen” by Nancy Goldstone. Then, when I could read myself I re-read “The Trial Of Rehabilitation” published by Ignatius Press. The trial has many of Joan’s childhood friends, who at that time were in their 40’s , reminiscing about the strong-willed, holy girl they knew.
This year, it’s impossible for me to think of Joan without begging her to guide and lead into the future, the students like the Parkland Survivors, who are, I believe, are acting with inspired Wisdom. We adults seem to have become too numb and too hopeless to do anything but talk or preach “an eye for an eye...” But these young children with their valiant attempts to awaken us all to the violence and senseless shootings (which now have been occurring nearly once a week) continue to create Holy Hope.
I began with a witty quote from Bernard Shaw about creating yourself, which has some valuable truth in it.
What I really believe, is that if we are humble enough to be pliable in God’s hands, letting God continually mold and create us, each one of us becomes the absolutely unique beings we were always meant from eternity to be.
St Joan lead us and our youth, into God, who alone can give us life now and everlasting life to come!
Fr Bill McNichols
30 May 2018

http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/featured/st-joan-of-arc-with-st-michael-the-archangel-042-william-hart-mcnichols.html

The Blessed Virgin Mary- Mother of the Church

May 18th, 2018

“The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church”
(The new feastday proclaimed by Pope Francis, forever to follow Pentecost Sunday... Starting this year, the feast will be 21 May 2018)

When I heard of Pope Francis creating a new Marian feast, I had already been commissioned by Fr Phil Lloyd of St Theresa’s Church (thus the roses that Master woodworker Roberto Lavadie lovingly “set into” the frame) in Houston, Texas. Fr Phil invited me to create a Marian icon, as well as other icons for the church. I was ecstatic that I would have an opportunity to visualize this new icon and hopefully give life to it through the intercession of the Holy Spirit and Our Blessed Mother. I found an old black and white drawing done in 1909, in an old missal; and this became the starting point for my inspiration. I could write an entire blog about how those incredibly beautiful and intricate black and white Catholic Missal drawings, with a veritable encyclopedia of mystical symbols, influenced my entire childhood. And these illustrations have stayed with me into adulthood, as Ever-Bountiful fountains of living waters. In creating this feast Pope Francis wants the Church to reach for a “Marian character,” or to become increasingly Mother-like. What does this mean for us? Let’s look at a couple of theologians who I think begin to articulate the on-going mystery of this new feast. They may seem a bit dense or abstract but they are filled with real life inspiration and instruction, I hope and believe.
“The world is now in the time of choice...The choice facing us has become clearer-to say yes or no to the Risen Christ. In this phase of salvation history, Mary is transferred for the remaining earth-time to what the imagery of the Book of Revelation calls ‘wilderness’ or ‘desert.’ The ‘desert is the place of impoverishment and distress on the one hand, but also a place of rejuvenation, of concentrated attention to God. In the desert Mary remains what she was and will be for all eternity: the mother. This mother gives Christ to the Church and the world ‘not just at one single moment in history but at every moment of the history of the Church and the world.’ In doing this, Mary makes her own the prayer and activity of the Church. This gives confidence in the face of trials. No matter what difficulties come (nowhere can one evade the ‘rage of the dragon against the woman’ and his war ‘with the rest of her offspring,’ the Christians), this woman is nourished through world-time with manna from on high, which keeps her alive and makes her fruitful: the victory of Christ will be hers... At this point we need to recall von Balthasar’s own admonition not to reduce consideration of Mary’s role to devotional piety. She has a social-ecclesial personality. Accordingly, while from the world’s point of view the Woman remains u-topian and without ‘form,’ something of her invisible form is discernible in her genuine children. In them the invisible realities become visible.
Mary continues, as it were, where people become ‘mothers’ of Christ.”
From “The Marian Profile In The Ecclesiology of Hans Urs von Balthasar”
By Father Brendan Leahy
“It is the one who gives the Bride away, the Holy Spirit, who directs this movement of heaven and earth in love, perfecting thus the relationship that was entered into in Christ with the Bride Sion-Mary-Ecclesia. Christians live at the epicenter of this event, which wishes to become reality in them too, and for them, through the gift they make of their own life to love. Their existence is to be an ever-creative translation in the Holy Spirit, an ever-new future of God.”
Explorations III: Creator Spirit
Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar (12 August 1905-26 June 1988)

Fr Bill McNichols
Pentecost 2018

St Martha of Bethany

April 20th, 2018

St Martha of Bethany
This icon was written for Steve Katsouros, SJ, Dean and Executive Director. Arrupe College, Loyola University Chicago. I asked him to write something after receiving the icon, here it is.

About our friend Martha:

The multi-faceted Martha of Bethany speaks to me in several ways. She is first the exemplar of hospitality, as evidenced by the home she shares with her siblings as a center for conversation and fellowship with Jesus and I am certain others. When her brother dies, she is able to express her anger at Jesus for not being there when she needed him; that said, she also clearly loves Jesus. Martha is like us—complex, capable of holding opposing emotions. She is the best of us, however, because her love is what grounds her—not her anger or resentment. During her exchange with Jesus after the death of Lazarus, when Jesus asks her if she believes in him, she explains that she has “come to believe” that he is God’s son. I find this very consoling. Martha knew Jesus, and yet, her faith in him was not achieved in an instant, with a thunderclap or a burning bush or a eureka. Rather, she came to believe in him—it was gradual, a process, a journey, a series of interactions, conversations, common experiences, meals, during which she came to believe in him. I am reminded that my faith journey is just that, a journey, requiring attention to Jesus, the guest, the companion, the conversationalist, the teacher, the friend.

Back to Martha the hostess. As someone who experiences pressure for taking on too many projects, I can relate to Martha’s frustration in her sister—Mary, sitting at the feet of Jesus, Martha, fretting about the timing of the dinner or the cleanup afterwards. Jesus’s line about Mary choosing the better portion can be irksome. Like Martha, I came to appreciate Jesus’s response to Martha’s frustration gradually. In my case, our students at Arrupe College served as clarifiers here, as agents of insight, as they often do. My colleagues and I at Arrupe could easily default into Martha’s activity—doing for our students. Jesus reminds us that such a stance is not enough. Rather, it’s about Mary’s approach—being with, rather than doing for. Pope Francis has elevated the word “accompaniment” to deepen our understanding of ministry. We are invited to be with, rather than do for—in my case, I’ve been called at Arrupe to be with our students during their first post-secondary educational experience, rather than doing for—if I simply did for, I’d miss their gifts, just as Martha misses Jesus’s gifts by giving her attention to completing the task at hand.

Despite Martha’s misstep here, I am confident that she experienced the gift of hosting Jesus—part of her gradual “coming to believe” process, part of her being a complex woman who is capable of holding contrasting emotions simultaneously.

Consequently, Martha of Bethany has the capacity to be Martha of 2018–like Thomas the twin, Martha mirrors how we might miss out on what’s really important, how our faith lives are journeys, how at times those faith lives include wrestling a variety of emotions at once. Martha remains anchored in love—and so must we as we come to believe in Jesus during our journeys of missing him and feeling conflicted about him.

Fr. Steve Katsouros, SJ

Nuestro Salvador de las Sandias

April 16th, 2018

Nuestro Salvador de las Sandias
This icon was inspired in part by the beautiful snow scapes in Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 film Dreams. The icon depicts the resurrected Christ
emerging from the winter. Christ holds a cottonwood branch, one of the first buds to emerge during spring in the Albuquerque region. He wears the color of red for humanity with gold assists, signifying his divinity. The Sandia mountains are purple, characteristic of the hue they acquire in wintertime when they are covered with snow. The moon, which for Bill almost always symbolizes Mary, is present during the day as she waits for her son to rise. Christ appears ethnically similar to many of the people native to the region.
This is Bill’s favorite image of Christ: powerful, strong, and loving. It contains a message of hope. Christ emerges out of the tomb, as this icon was written virtually on the eve of when the sex-abuse crisis in the Catholic Church broke out in Albuquerque in the early 1990s. Unbeknown to the artist at the time, the icon acquired an ecclesial significance and inspired prayer for the people of Albuquerque and the Church that they be healed from the ramifications of the crisis.
BY John D. Dadosky, S.T.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Theology and Philosophy
Regis College/University of Toronto
From “Image to Insight” Book Available on Amazon

St Ignatius and the Passion of the World in the 21st Century

March 27th, 2018

St Ignatius and the Passion of the World in the 21st Century (2002)
St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556) was perhaps one of the most influential saints in the history of Christianity. He founded the Society of Jesus (or Jesuits) and they alone have influenced and shaped civilization in their commitment to education among other postulates.
In many ways Ignatius pre-dated modern psychology with his development of the Spiritual Exercises. The latter is a retreat that is divided into four segments or ‘weeks’. Each week is designed to help the retreatant to discern major decisions in his or her life. Particularly in the third week one contemplates the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ passion and crucifixion. Through constant periods of prayer and visual meditation one enters into a powerful personal communion with Jesus crucified. This is not a morbid reflection but the pivotal moment and existential contemplation on the transformation of evil into good.
In this image of Ignatius, Bill emphasizes the contemporary relevance of Ignatian spirituality. Ignatius, garbed in the habit of his time, offers an image of the contemporary world to the crucified Christ. The world is in turmoil and reflects the possibility of global annihilation reflective of our age. Blood from the wounds drips down on the world echoing Christ’s response as he gazes on it with compassion. There is hope that the blood of the crucified will be able to transform the world in all its violence.
BY John D. Dadosky, S.T.D., Ph.D.
Professor, Theology and Philosophy
Regis College/University of Toronto
From "Image to Insight" Book Available on Amazon

A Meditation On Jesus -1969- By Daniel Berrigan SJ

March 8th, 2018

A Meditation On Jesus (1969)
By Daniel Berrigan, SJ
9 May 1921 - 30 April 2016

1. The gospel of Jesus is spoken in a world
intoxicated with death
mesmerized by death
convinced of the necessary rule of death
technologizing death
acceding to the omnipresence of death

2. And Jesus says No
to this omnivorous power.
So his word makes the slight
all but imperceptible difference
(which is finally the only difference).
A good man, himself powerless,
stands at the side of powerless men
and says to death No
for them for himself.

3. Can any of you
place before you a single child, smiling
squirming in your arms; and say
The death of this child is a fact of modern war; I accede
to that death. I regret it of course
but what can one do? We have to destroy
in order to save; villages, women, children,
The system traps us all...

4. The system; horrible word! Can the system
trap the conscience of a free man?
Traps are for animals; freedom is for men.
I cannot speak for you
but I will not wait upon Caesar
to instruct me in God's word.
I am a man. I can read:
If a man will save his life, let him lose it.
I say to you love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you.
Whatever you do to the least of these
my brothers, you do to me.
Blessed are you who suffer persecution
for justice's sake.

5. Jesus had nothing to say to "systems",
except to deny their power over him.
He said in effect, violence stops here (pointing to his body)
He said in effect, it is better to die for others
than to live (live?) in a trap.

6. Be concrete, be immediate!
Imagine the world!
If you embrace a child, can you consent
to the death of a child? each human face
leads you (follow!) to every human face.

7. I can only tell you what I believe.
I believe I cannot be saved by foreign policies.
I cannot be saved by sexual revolutions.
I cannot be saved by the gross national product.
I cannot be save by nuclear deterrents.
I cannot be saved by aldermen, priests, artists,
plumbers, city planners, social engineers,
nor by the Vatican,
nor by the World Buddhist Association
nor by Hitler nor by Joan of Arc
nor by angels and archangels,
nor by powers and dominations

8. I can be saved only by Jesus Christ.

9. Take this book with you, please
into the midst of children old men and women
the poor, the defeated, the innocent.
Carry it about with you, let it speak
wherever men struggle, suffer, abandon hope,
Let the book happen to you.
It has no other reason for being,
A man
very like yourself
first spoke the words of these pages,
"a man acquainted with grief,
like us in everything, save sin alone."
He is as near to you/ as your next drawn breath.

10. I do not know
where my life leads.
Do you know where your life leads?
The next note is not struck.
The hands (foul, cleansed) hover
over the instrument.
My friends ask me: After jail, what?
You too (my friends) start awake at midnight,
question the silent lover beside,
the dream-wrapped child;
where? what next?

11. Lover, child, in the immense dignity of birth or death refuse an answer.
There is no answer.
The genius of the gospel is in the name of man
to refuse an answer.
We had best go forward/ as those in love go
Exulting in the breadth of the swath love opens
the sound of a scythe at harvest
the soundlessness of children sleeping a universe
of unanswerable grandeur!

12. If we have awakened to the world
it is probable that our salvation is near.
If we abide in love
we shall be greatly loved.

13. I believe that twelve just men, believing
against all evidence,
may stir the soil or sea
with toilers' hands, bring up intact
something flowerlike, something —

Jesus,
that direct and life-giving man
waits on you.
The world waits on you.
The two statements
are quite simply verified.
Close then open your eyes.

El Lucero Radiante del Alba -Jesus Christ Radiant Light of the Dawn- Teenage Christ

February 19th, 2018

El Lucero Radiante del Alba (Jesus Christ Radiant Light of the Dawn) : Teenage Christ.
This icon was originally painted (written) for an exhibit in Taos, New Mexico called “Sobre Muerte” (About Death) for the annual honoring of the Day of the Dead, November 2, traditionally called All Souls’ Day. I have written about this image often and John Dadosky has written about it, beautifully, in the newly released book from University of New Mexico Press, “Image to Insight.” It was after the Colorado Columbine High School murders that I wanted to paint Jesus as a contemporary teenager, fatally wounded, amidst a cemetery, yet very much Resurrected.
When I was a college student I went to Boston College for philosophy (a Jesuit requirement) and Boston University for Art. I’ve always been enthralled with the everlasting-Puritan influences on the United States. I read into Nathaniel Hawthorne to see what happened to us. It’s all there. I had an incredibly insightful,intelligent teacher for a course in education (before I became a teacher) she told us “You will never understand the United States unless you read “The Scarlet Letter” by Hawthorne. This has never left me. As a young student I would wander in the old graveyards of Boston and Salem and continually see these winged skulls on the tombstones. They spoke of the finality of death but the wings spoke of life after death. My dear friend, Master woodworker, Roberto Lavadie carved the frame for this Young Christ. Just today I read that the teenagers in Florida who survived the latest onslaught of terrifying murders are going to have a march in Washington DC to ask us to protect them, on March 24. Whatever political position you hold, they tell us they are the victims of our moral somnambulant/numbness. I offer this icon of Jesus as the awakening of the children who have seen the Skull-With-Wings , way way way too often.
This is a part of a litany I wrote for this icon...
Jesus Christ
Lamb of God,
Lamp of the Heavenly City.
Jesus Christ
Shepherd of the despised
and rejected,
Lamb led to slaughter.
Jesus Christ
Word of God, Eyes of Fire,
Prophet in exile,
Garment of Blood.
Jesus Christ
Eternal Bridegroom,
Faithful and True.
Jesus Christ
Morning and Evening Star,
Firstborn of the Dead,
Alpha and Omega,
Beginning and the End...
Dear Lord Jesus, we beg you ,please continue to inspire our youth to wake us up with their anguished prophetic cries.
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
Second week of Lent 2018
(You can read more about this icon in Professor John Dadosky’s new book.)

Holy New Martyr Nestor Savchuk 1960 - 1993

December 30th, 2017

Holy New Martyr Nestor Savchuk 1960 - 1993
Nestor Savchuk was born in the province of Crimea, southern Russia, as Nikolai Savchuk, in 1960. As a youth he excelled in boxing, wrestling, martial arts, and painting. In his twenties he began to work as an apprentice painting religious murals in Odessa. There, the older artists told him the stories of the Russian saints. Inspired by the saints with a love for God, Nestor set out for the 13th century monastery of Pochaev to become a monk. This love grew naturally and expressed itself through his devotion and prayer with the holy icons, which one day would become the source of his martyrdom. After his ordination his spiritual father advised him to go to an isolated village in the Ukraine, by the name of Zharky. There he found a church dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God, which had many ancient icons and from that church he felt a deep mystical feeling and an invitation. There he also found many blocks and difficulties. The church caught fire once and also became the target of an icon stealing ring connected to the Russian mafia. He was warned by the mafia that if he continued to keep the icons from them, he would be killed. Nestor would stay up all night guarding the church. He was then touched with a desire to ask for the grace of martyrdom. He began to pray for long hours. A friend warned him of this prayer and told him he ought to be asking for a long life of suffering for God instead. Nestor replied, “Yes, I understand that, but maybe if I will pray for martyrdom, perhaps I will be able to pray it out.” Late in the dark morning of December 31, 1993, the friend was awakened by a dream of St John the Baptist who told him to, “ Go immediately to Father Nestor.” But he did not go until that morning where he found Nestor murdered, outside his rectory in Zharky.
Adapted from a brief biography in the book “Youth of the Apocalypse” by Monks John Marier and Andrew Wermuth
I was blessed to be asked by the late Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska to paint an icon of Our Lady of Magadan, (a former concentration camp from 1938-1955) which is in the Far East of Russia, four hours flight from Anchorage. When I visited there in October 1995, I went to the Lavra (monastery) of St Sergius of Radonezh. The monks there asked me to paint Our Lady of Pochaev for them. I asked if they knew of Nestor and his martyrdom. They said, “No, there are so many new martyrs in Russia.” I was stunned into silence by their answer. Months later I received a picture of Archbishop Hurley giving Our Lady of Pochaev to the monks and one was bending down to kiss the icon. That’s a picture I treasure and a great honor from the Russian Orthodox Church. We are all aware of the great suffering today in Russia and their need to continue to worship God freely. Our Lady of Fatima asked the three children she appeared to in Portugal, in 1917, to pray for the conversion of Russia. This was just months before the bloody Bolshevik Revolution, which Russia recently celebrated in November 2017. St Padre Pio prophesied, “Yes, Russia will be converted as the Blessed Virgin said She would. However, Russia will teach the United States a lesson in conversion.”
In this year of 2018, O Mother of God, Immaculate Heart of Fatima, Magadan, Pochaev, Mother of All Nations, and Holy New Martyr Nestor, help us all move quickly toward the conversion you both desire for us and the entire World.
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
30 December 2017

The Nursing Icon of the Mother of God

December 24th, 2017

The Nursing Icon of the Mother of God (Feastday, along with St Stephen , December 26)
After my Mother died in August 2006, as Advent approached I was still in grief inside and couldn’t feel the usual intensity of the beautiful four weeks before Christmas. I never realized how much (for me) the Mother is Christmas, in that she teaches the whole story to her children and creates the atmosphere inside the house that really begins your understanding of the entire season. This includes the Nativity set (which also contained figures from her childhood) the tree, the lights, the decorations, the candles, the Advent wreath, food, music, and magical presence around the house. So that Advent of 2006 I painted the Nursing Icon as a living memory of Mom. There are hundreds of great Christmas poems, here are a few lines from my favorite one, by St Robert, who had a truly childlike innocence and yet always manages to dazzle you with his theological insights into very deep Christian mysteries.
“Behold the Father is His daughter’s son,
The bird that built the nest is hatc’d therein,
...Might feeble is and force doth faintly creep,
...Up heavy hearts, with joy your joy embrace!
From death, from dark, from deafness, from despairs,
This life, this light, this world, this joy repairs...”
St Robert Southwell, SJ
English Martyr
1561-1595
A most beautiful, Spiritfilled, and joyful Christmas!
Fr Bill McNichols
24 December 2017

St Peter Canisius - Doctor of the Church 1521-1597

December 21st, 2017

St Peter Canisius : Doctor of the Church 1521-1597
My friend Fr Paul Begheyn, SJ commissioned this icon for the Dutch Province of the Jesuits in 1996. The first image I had for the icon was Peter wading through a thick,foggy, ominous, Grimm’s German fairy tale-dark-forest, holding a lantern, as in the painting of Christ knocking at the (your) door, (The Light of the World) by William Holman Hunt. This was my image of the dangerous journey Peter Canisius had to manage during the Reformation. God, through the Church, has always produced men and women with what the late Cardinal von Balthasar has called “church souls.” These souls have been given a gift of a profoundly inspired knowledge of what is necessary and what is superfluous. They are not tied to their own times, but seem to have an ancient love for the church, going back centuries before them. Some are very prickly and irascible, ready to fight, and quite up to the task. But I am attracted to the ones who have a supernatural gift of being compassionate in the midst of incredible tempers flying at them while they serenely preach the truth. I think of these Master Apologists as almost “inhumanly human” and yet very much human at their core. Living in this, our time, of great anger and divisions about religion and politics, it’s not hard to imagine these furious battles of opinion, but to imagine the serene preaching and converse of St Dominic, St Catherine of Siena, Blessed Cardinal Newman, or the late Daniel Berrigan, SJ, is obviously miraculous. St Peter Canisius had this gift. There are many more in our history but those saints and prophets, always come to mind first for me. Peter could stand before his enemies and bear the flying rage coming toward him, then simply speak back to them with the truth. He was well aware of the need for a Reformation but saw it coming in a less violent/schismatic way. Today, I think Fr Jim Martin, SJ also has this Apologist’s gift and I admire him so much, with the Internet age, he gets twice, ten times, a hundred times, actually, the irrational, scurrilous rage thrown at him but he manages to remain inside his Lord Jesus who is our way, our truth and our life.
A key to St Peter’s spiritual depth is his devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It was a gradual transformation within him, or mystical exchange of hearts, that created the heart and soul of Peter. On the day of his final vows Our Lord allowed him to see his Sacred Heart. This of course changed the way he saw and spoke to everyone. He could say no, and create what we call boundaries, or teach someone the depths he had received with an incredible care for them, because his own heart had been transformed. Peter said, “Again, it is a mistaken policy to behave in a contentious fashion and to start disputes about matters of belief with argumentative people who are disposed by their very natures to wrangling. Indeed, the fact of their being so constituted is a reason the more why such people should be attracted and won to the simplicity of the faith as much by example as by argument.” So in this icon I finally decided to show him with Holy Wisdom gently whispering on his shoulder into his “inner ear”. She alone could teach him the countenance and the extremely practical, daily ways of Wisdom. Normally only St John the Evangelist is shown with Holy Wisdom (Sophia) but at the time I painted (wrote) this icon, I saw an icon with St Gregory the Great being similarly instructed by Sophia, so knew I had to portray St Peter with her too. He is prayerfully contemplating the book on his lap, the Prologue to St John’s Gospel, about the Light coming into the darkness and the darkness unable to receive or allow the Light in. If you’re looking for an example of getting through these times, I cannot think of anyone better than St Peter Canisius whom we celebrate, not accidentally, on the Solstice...Light returning.
“Let my eyes take their sleep, but may my heart always keep watch for you. May your right hand bless your servants who love you. May I be united with the praise that flies from you, Lord Jesus, to all your saints; united with gratitude drawn from your heart good Jesus, that causes your saints to thank you; united with your passion, good Jesus, by which you took away our guilt; united with divine longing that you had on earth for our salvation; united with every prayer that welled up from your divine heart, good Jesus, and flowed into the hearts of your saints. Amen”
St Peter Canisius

Fr Bill McNichols
21 December 2017

Our Lady of the New Advent The Gate of Heaven

December 14th, 2017

Our Lady of the New Advent : The Gate of Heaven
The commissioning of this icon of the Archdiocese of Denver by Cardinal Stafford in 1991, was, unbeknownst to me at the time, an Annunciation of not only the New Advent , but an entirely new life for me as well.
The Sisters of St Walburga’s Benedictine Abbey, in Virginia Dale, Colorado wrote one of the most beautiful, evocative and prophetic prayers I have ever read - to Our Lady of the New Advent in 1992, which you can read below. Her feastday is December 16th.
“ In 1 Corinthians 15 : 24-25 St Paul depicts the enemies of Christ as battling against Christ, reigning on high. In reality, however, these enemies are only able to persecute the members of Christ’s body still on earth. They battle against the Head, but can only inflict harm on the Body. A clear case is Acts 9: 4 f, where the risen Jesus states that Saul is persecuting him, whereas Saul was bent on the murder of the disciples of the Lord (v 1)
‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?
And he said, who are you Lord?
And he said , I am Jesus ,whom you are persecuting...’
Saul persecuted Jesus in person when he persecutes the members of Jesus...
Does the same hold for Mary? Is there a similar (though not identical) unity between Mary and the Church as between Christ and his members? In speaking of Mary, the sacred writer would also have the church in mind. And, in parallel to the above passage concerning Christ, the battle of Satan would rage ( in Revelation 12) against the person of Mary, although in actuality affecting the Church on earth.”
The Woman Clothed With The Sun by Bernard Le Frois,SVD

Prayer To Our Lady of the New Advent ***
O Lady and Mother
of the One who was and is and is to come,
Dawn of the New Jerusalem,
we earnestly beseech you,
bring us by your intercession
so to live in love
that the Church, The Body of Christ ,
may stand in this world’s dark
as a fiery icon of the New Jerusalem.
We ask you to obtain for us this mercy
through Jesus Christ, your Son and Lord,
who lives and reigns
with the Father in the Holy Spirit,
one God, forever and ever.
Amen
(Composed by the Sisters of St Walburga Abbey)
Fr Bill McNichols
December 2017

St Andrew the First Called

November 29th, 2017

St Andrew the First Called
(for St. Andrew Christmas Novena - starts on 30 November)
“Hail and blessed be the hour and moment
In which the Son of God was born of the
Most pure Virgin Mary,
At midnight, in Bethlehem,
In the piercing cold.
In that hour vouchsafe, I beseech Thee
O my God, to hear my prayer, and
grant my desires, through the merits of
Our Lord Jesus Christ and of His
Blessed Mother . Amen”
This Novena is said to be at least 100 years old, and you feel it, the way it’s is written.
The mention of the piercing cold at midnight, really brings the “real” Christmas to you.
When I was a theology student in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1976-79) we had to take on some kind of outside apostolate or learning experience that would somehow, prepare us for the priesthood. I chose to work on a suicide hotline and walk in service called “The Samaritans” originally founded in London by an Episcopal priest. He was apparently a great counselor and people sat in his office waiting to talk with him. One day someone came in and said, “Its okay Father, I don’t need to talk, the lady sitting next to me in your office really helped me.” After that, he decided to train people to listen and speak with one another, that was the beginning of The Samaritans. In the training we were told that you cannot proselytize, you have to find something inside yourself that can reach the one on the other end. We could not use our last name, but if a person wanted to talk with you on your shift, they could ask for Bill 249 (my number). The great thing for me was listening to the other volunteers and the way they helped people, some were incredibly funny, some deeply serious - in other words, it’s the “real You” that heals. The worst nights of the year were all around the holidays. Everyone thinks that people are all having a “Currier and Ives” or a “Norman Rockwell Christmas,” and they alone, are in darkness and depression. One Christmas Eve I did an overnight and the phones rang non-stop from dark until the first glimpse of light on Christmas Day. But listen to the prayer, “...at midnight, in Bethlehem, in the piercing cold.” The prayer is to be said 15 times a day which you can break up by saying it 5 times in the morning, 5 times around noon, and 5 times at night.
Recently I read that Pope Francis asked priests to respect people’s devotions, and not get too intellectual or snobbish about simple longing- prayers from the heart.
This icon was a present to my great author-friend, Andrew Krivak from his wife Amelia.
I was really aware while painting (writing) the icon that it’s the Child Jesus (in icons called Christ Emmanuel) who is present above St Andrew, who was one of the first called by Jesus in the Gospel narrative...something to think about or contemplate in this Advent Season.
Abundant Blessings...........and I know the Child will call (is calling) you too!
“Unpleasant though it may be, the sense of personal sin is precisely that which keeps our sin from getting out of hand. It is quite painful at times, but it is a very great blessing because it is our one and only effective safeguard against our own proclivity for evil.
St Therese of Lisieux put it so nicely in her gentle way:
“If you are willing to serenely bear the trial of being displeasing to yourself, then you will be for Jesus a pleasant place of shelter.”
From “People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil” 1983,
by M.Scott Peck, MD (1936-2005)
Fr Bill McNichols
Advent 2017

Holy Poet-Martyr St Robert Southwell and The Burning Babe

November 28th, 2017

Holy Poet-Martyr St Robert Southwell and The Burning Babe
In an essay on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, Roland Barthes, the brilliant writer of linguistics, comments that this small book which was long supposed to be of little literary value, is actually one which creates a whole new language. In its painstaking attention to sensory and contemplative detail, it is a school for writers and image makers. Many schools of prayer would warn the students about visions and the use of images. Luther and the Reformation cried out, “The ear, the ear alone is the Christian organ.” The Flemish and Spanish mystics would further caution against the praying imagination, pointing to the cloud of unknowing, the dazzling darkness, the void en route to God. Barthes claims that “...to these mistrustings of the image Ignatius responded with a radical imperialism of the image: product of the guided imagination, the image is the abiding material of the Exercises...It can be said that Ignatius takes as much trouble filling the spirit with images as the mystics (Christian and Buddhist) do in emptying them out ...” Enter, St Robert Southwell (1561-1595) poet, martyr, genius image-maker and gifted “graduate of the school of Ignatian Exercises.” He delights in turning a phrase to make us see a new side of the mystery he is contemplating; taking us by the hand into a scene to share in his amazement. For example, he takes a kind of Ignatian “aerial view” from the cosmos, over the Nativity of the Lord calling us to: “Behold, the Father is his daughter’s son. The bird that built the nest is hatched therein...Might feeble is, and Force doth faintly creep.” In a brief poem to the Child Jesus called “A Childe My Choyse” are found these beautiful, unforgettable lines: “First friend He was, best friend He is, all times will try Him true.” Robert’s 19th century spiritual descendant, Gerard Manley Hopkins (the father of modern poetry) would later contemplate these lines and almost echo them in his poem “The Lantern Out of Doors” speaking also of the Savior as “...first, fast, last friend.” There is no one like St Robert. His poetry evolved from a somewhat stiff neo-classical style to a vivid,playful devotional praise of God. There is so much adoration in Robert. He loves and adores the Holy Family , the Child Jesus, the saints he sees closest to Jesus in the Gospels ,like Sts Peter and Mary Magdalen. Robert’s most famous poem, “The Burning Babe”actually anticipates the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by almost a hundred years. He has been termed a minor poet of the Elizabethan Renaissance, but I think this has more to do with his pure and devotional subject matter than with his gifts as a poet. The English poet and dramatist, Ben Jonson said he would have given anything to have written “The Burning Babe,” and there is scholarly talk of Robert Southwell’s influence on the art of William Shakespeare. Robert was betrayed by a family friend , Anne Bellamy, and captured in June of 1592 by the sadistic monster, Richard Topcliffe who led him, bound in chains, to his residence next to the Gatehouse prison at Westminster , where he had his private torture chamber. On February 21 , 1595 Robert was taken to Tyburn to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The crowd was hushed and reverent as he prayed three times including a prayer for England and Queen Elizabeth. He begged Our Lady and all the saints and angels to intercede for him, ending with Jesus last words, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” The cart that he was standing on slowly pulled away and left Robert hanging. Ordinarily prisoners were taken down while still alive and then dismembered. As the hangman moved to take him down the crowd growled, “He prayed for the Queen!” Then, mercifully the hangman pulled his legs breaking his neck. The long years of horrific suffering came to an end. Afterwards his heart was said to have leaped from his body at the touch of the knife.
His head was cut off and placed on a spike on London Bridge; his body cut into four parts and exhibited around the city as a warning. It is said that two collections of Roberts devotional poems fell into the hands of Elizabeth after his death; upon encountering his beautiful soul in the poems, she deeply regretted his murder. Tragically, three hundred Protestants were also murdered under Elizabeth’s sister, Queen Mary. St Robert Southwell, along with Edmund Campion, Margaret Clitherow and forty other English and Welsh martyrs, out of three hundred Catholics, were canonized by Pope Paul IV in 1970. Their feast is December 1st.
Fr Bill McNichols
27 November 2017
In his 2014 Christmas CD “If On A Winter’s Night” - the British singer-songwriter Sting put St Robert Southwell’s poem “The Burning Babe” to music.

Christ the King The Bridegroom

November 21st, 2017

Christ the King : The Bridegroom
(O Nymphios - in Greek)
“The Lord comes out before the people, attired in the signs of his nonfulfilled kingship. In this nonfulfillment of his rule, his entire mission is contained. For if it had been fulfilled on earth, it would have been limited in space and time and thus would not be his mission...in all areas, he only made starts, only sowed beginnings...on some hearts, he engraved the sign of the Divine Always-More, the sign of what is unfulfillable in this world. To be a Christian means this: to close nothing off as completed, but to open oneself up into the always-more of the Son’s love for the Father...As the nonfulfilled and thus, for the world, the contemptible-he is displayed to all. In himself, he wants never to be fulfilled, but only to live in the ever-greater fullness of the Father. And thus he is presented to the world.”
Adrienne von Speyr
Commentary on the Gospel of St John, volume 4.
“Christ the Bridegroom is the central figure in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25: 1-13); Christ is the divine Bridegroom of the Church as described in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 54, as well as the primary image of Bridegroom Matins. The title is suggestive of his divine presence and watchfulness, ‘Behold the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night...’ “
Orthodoxwiki.org
As a child our familiy’s first parish home was Christ the King, and later, St John the Evangelist (now renamed Good Shepherd) and Mother of God Church-all three in Denver, Colorado. The theology of the Sisters of the Precious Blood who taught at Christ the King is very evident to me when I look back at one of my first drawings of the Crucifixion, “colored and drawn” at age 5. You can see it if you go to the “drawings, illustrations ,images” gallery on the website. Although the Crucified King is right there in that early drawing, I have to say my understanding of Him has grown over the years through the writings of William Stringfellow, Jim Douglass, Dan and Phil Berrigan, Dorothy Day, Pope Benedict and Adrienne von Speyr... to name just a few...as well as a host of scripture scholars. Listen to this: “...God did not intend Israel to have a kingdom. The kingdom was a result of Israel’s rebellion against God...The law was to be Israel’s king, and through the law, God himself...God yielded to Israel’s obstinacy and so devised a new kind of kingship for them. The King is Jesus; in him God entered humanity and espoused it to himself...The feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the one who writes straight on crooked lines.” Pope Benedict XVI . The story the Pope refers to can be read in the Book of Samuel (1 Samuel 8:5-22). This is one of the most chilling passages in all of scripture, and lays bare our lust for nationalism and war. The people demand from the prophet a human king. Samuel is disgusted with their request and warns them, “...If you have a king he’ll make an army and take your sons. He will enslave your daughters, maidservants and manservants. He will take your property, your vineyards, your livestock.”...nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel...”we will have a king over us; that we may be like all the nations.” And the Lord said, “they have not rejected you Samuel, but they have rejected me that I should not reign over them.” When a child (or adult) is Baptized the deacon or priest says I Baptize you as a priest, prophet and king (or queen). This is not just a quaint or complimentary designation, but the absolute truth. We are destined to be Kings and Queens in the only kingdom that will last forever, as we say in the Nicene Creed on Sunday’s , “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.”
Here is a beautiful Orthodox exaposteilarion hymn from Holy Tuesday:
“I see Thy Bridal Chamber adorned, O my Savior, but have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.”
Our desire to be with God even though we often feel unworthy, reminds me of the death of St Thomas More in the play/film “A Man For All Seasons” by Robert Bolt. More tells the executioner to do his duty because he will send More to God. Then Archbishop Cranmer says how can you be so sure? More replies because, “ He will not refuse one who is so blithe to go to him.”
Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday in the church year, this year, November 26. On the following Sunday, December 3 ,Advent begins...O Come, O Come Emmanuel...and Christ the King, the true Desire of All Nations.
Fr Bill McNichols
November 2017
For the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

The Non-Violent Cross and The Holy Cross of Talpa

November 8th, 2017

The Non-Violent Cross: and The Holy Cross of Talpa
I was twenty years old and a Jesuit Novice when I read the theological masterpiece by Jim Douglass, “The Non-Violent Cross”, at a very humble place called” Charboniere Villa” (an old, warm, charming and slightly broken down house with bunk beds) which was the Jesuit Novices’ villa. We went there for two weeks in the summer and most weekends during the year while we were imbibing St Ignatius’ Spirituality at St Stanislaus Seminary, formerly in Florissant, Missouri. This was for me during the years, 1968-1970.
I remember sitting on an old wooden chair reading by the window, on a very hot and humid summer day. As I read Jim’s understanding of the changes in Christianity, after Constantine (in the year 312) saw the vision in the sky of the Cross, and the now legendary words around the Cross, (in Greek but translated into Latin) “In hoc signo vinces-In this sign thou shalt conquer!” I could barely go on, I was stunned and fixed to my chair. This book was something completely new to me but also something I had intuitively known in my soul and body since early childhood. Jim basically says (and please read his book for yourselves ) that the Sign was the non-violent Cross. The very meaning of the Cross is non-violence...no retaliation, no vengeance, on and on...flowing from the Beatitudes of Jesus given in his Sermon on the Mount, in what the scripture scholar G.B. Caird, in his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, calls Jesus “inaugural speech.” And in this book “Holy Theologian” Jim Douglass reminds us of the true meaning of the Sign, and warns us, that we’ve taken down the Cross in the sky and turned it into a sword ever since that vision given to Constantine.
Last night the young artist and filmmaker, Christopher Summa (“The Boy Who Found Gold”) emailed me an article printed from the Chicago Tribune “Why church shootings don’t intimidate the church”by Russel Moore. It overwhelmed me in the same spiritually enlightening way as my first encounter with Jim’s Douglass’ book. Mr Moore seems to me, to be saying that Christianity is Only enlivened by the Cross, and that the pompous triumphal christianity, we want because it is safe, yet numbing, leads to our personal and collective soul death. As St John says in the Apocalypse, “See, the Lion of Judah has conquered...then I saw a Lamb...” (Revelation 5:5,6)
“...For John looks for the Lion from the tribe of Judah and sees a Lamb.” (Page 74, G.B. Caird “The Revelation of St John.”)
The Cross I chose to illustrate this blog was commissioned by the deceased, and much beloved artist (d+2013) and my friend from Talpa (a small village within Taos) Charlie Strong. His widow Lyn B. Strong has been trying to find a church or “perfect home” for the 6ft Cross ever since the death of Charlie. It was made at his instruction with a small painting of Charlie and Lyn’s adobe home in Taos, modeled after the Ranchos de Taos Church,in the right panel near the body of Jesus. I decided to set the scene of the Cross in the Talpa night, using the Catholic symbolism of Mary as the Moon, the reflected light of the Sun...her son. I was very influenced by the gorgeous night paintings of Frederic Remington (1861-1909) and of course, the Italian master and teacher of Giotto, Cimabue (1240-1302).
This work, entitled “The Holy Cross of Talpa” was first shown in my exhibit at the Millicent Rogers Museum, “Silence in the Storm” in September 2008. It was a very difficult time for me personally so, in my mind the Cross shows and bears that difficulty in its essence. Because of that serious “discomfort,” I chose to place a small mandorla (almond shaped or egg shaped-form) with the hint of the Russian-Protecting-Icon, “She Who Reigns” hovering above Charlie and Lyn’s home in the night sky. This icon is said to have appeared right before the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia telling the people that Jesus and the Mother of God were/are the true and only rulers of the Russian people. As we near the feast of Christ the King of the Universe, it’s a reminder for our entire world. I don’t pretend to have an answer for the daily shootings and murders we are living in now. But I do know people have lived through plagues, pandemics, natural disasters, mass murders and wars since the first murder in Scripture of Abel by his brother Cain. I always remember and have quoted this before in other writings, that Holy Prophet Daniel Berrigan would often say, “The first murder in the Bible was of a brother by a brother and it’s been that way ever since.” When Mr Russell wrote in his article about the true nature, meaning and comfort of Christianity returning or staying with the Cross, I felt awakened again out of numbness and helplessness. This is a great mystery and can only be found through meditating or contemplating the Cross of Jesus and it’s meaning for us today, right now as we wait for Thanksgiving, Christ the King, and moving gradually as “the Shekhinah “ (or as some people experience it-the spirit of Advent“) descends gently, palpably to earth for the brief four weeks of the Holy Season of Advent; into the Christmas Season.

Let me sum all this up with a quote from St Louis de Montfort (1673-1716)the founder of the women’s religious order the Daughters of Wisdom :
“Wisdom is the Cross, the Cross is wisdom.”

Fr Bill McNichols
November 2017

The Holy Souls - The Souls of The Just Are In the Hands of God -Wisdom 3

October 20th, 2017

The Holy Souls : “The Souls of The Just Are In the Hands of God” -Wisdom 3
On April 27 2012 I was walking in the mountains with my friend and great Artist, Warren Kelly and his daughter Kaylie. I was gradually getting breathless, as if my life was a light dimmer - getting dimmer by the second- and mentioned that to Warren. He said “I hope it’s your breath and not your ticker.” At that point I knew it was my heart or ticker. I sat down and within a half hour I think, I was being flown to the Durango, Hospital in Colorado. They put me under and I was then flown to Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. My Doctor, the incredible Doctor Carl Lagerstrom, said when I arrived, on a one to ten scale my heart was a one. I woke up two weeks later partially hallucinating because I’d had nine drugs put in me, but my sister Mary remembers I told her my hero-doctor St Hildegard had been in the room. I don’t remember this, but after that time, well into recovery , I believed she brought me back to life. Since early childhood I’ve been aware of the Holy Souls or the Souls in Purgatory. In grade school we were told that on All Soul’s Day, November 2nd, we could save a soul by saying a set of prayers and going in and out of the church-for each set. I remember not wanting to go home because I thought I could help another soul. I’d love to write in great depth about the change in attitude toward death after Vatican II, but can only say a little...the vestments (for a funeral) went, literally, from black to white. The last church Requiem written for a Funeral Mass was Maurice Durufle’s Requiem (completed in 1948). The music is so tranquil, soft and beautiful it sounds like the soul is floating down a stream, lit like a candle inside a tiny boat . Compare it to Mozart or Verdi, and you’ll see what I mean. There have been requiems written since Durufle but not to be sung at a funeral mass, they are concert pieces. This awareness of the Souls at this time of the year is in many many cultures, for example the ancient Celtic Sawan or Samhain. I personally experience, this “season of the souls” lasts about a month, from October 15-November 15. It’s a time to “embrace” those who have gone be before us and pray for them. The Mexican culture’s Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead) celebrations are entering into more American cities each year. After Raymond Moody’s book “Life After Life” came out in 1975, attitudes toward death began to change rapidly. I am very fond of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross’s “On Life After Death” and Kenneth Ring’s “Lessons From the Light.” Now there are lots of books on this subject. And so , what is Purgatory? Is it in some ways similar to the Tibetan Toll Houses? Not being a Buddhist I can’t say for sure. But I put myself on a journey to find out what different cultures believed about life after death when I was a Hospice chaplain in NYC in the 80’s. Now I can say that because of many saints and church mystics I believe we ourselves choose Purgatory. The Austrian mystic Maria Simma (1915-2004 - the Church has not officially approved of her revelations yet, so it may not be for you) and St Padre Pio have a lot to say on this, and the Official Catechism of the Catholic Church, is a very good start. But a quick explanation is that when we die there is so much we regret. Mostly withholding love and our human penchant for cruelty, vengeance and the belief we are right...at all costs. We all share in these sins against the unconditional love of God for us. We can also say an absolute no to God and choose Hell, and yet both Origen Adamantius (“rehabilitated” by von B) and Cardinal von Balthasar believed in an empty Hell at the end of time . So imagine the Light of God is so overwhelmingly filled with love that we can only take a little at a time. We feel we are not yet purified enough and we choose to be at a “safe” distance from this Light while still feeling it’s pulling us toward it. Meanwhile we wish we could go back to earth and clean up all the damage we’ve done, but it’s too late. So there is agony in knowing what we did and we can’t pray for or forgive ourselves. Those who have lived with us, and are still on earth, can pray for us and in Purgatory, apparently we feel these prayers like the most soothing balm. Then when the souls go into heaven completely, they never forget the help we gave them. This is why we say Mass for them, and pray the Rosary or any prayers that honestly do touch the Holy Souls. I am well aware this is way too brief but I know you can go on your own journey to look into our Catholic beliefs about Purgatory. I’ll close with an experience of St Gertrude the Great from Susan Tassone’s book “Day By Day for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.”
“One day St Gertrude was praying for the Holy Souls when Jesus admonished her for not praying with confident assurance, the faith and realized hope, that God hears and answers our prayers. He assured her: ‘It would not be past my justice to release those suffering souls for whom you are praying, immediately, if you pray with confidence for this petition.” Page 281
This image from the Book of Wisdom, chapter 3, was commissioned by my friend Fr Robert Fisher for All Souls Church in Denver, Colorado.
Fr Bill McNichols
“We’ve been around, we fall, we fly
We mostly fall, we mostly run
And every now and then we try
To mend the damage that we’ve done
Tonight, tonight I just can’t rest
I’ve got this joy here inside my breast
To think that I did not forget that child
That Song of Bernadette...”
Leonard Cohen (1934-2016)

St Francisco Marto - O Milagre de Fatima do Sol

October 10th, 2017

St Francisco Marto: "O Milagre de Fatima do Sol"
"I have declared from the beginning the former things; they went forth from my mouth and I made them known; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass, says the Lord. Because I knew that you were obstinate, your neck was an iron sinew and your brow was brass. Therefore I have declared things to come to you from of old; before they came to pass I announced them to you, so that you could not say, my idol has done them, and my graven image have commanded them...they are called into being now by the prophetic word...” Isaiah 48:3-7
My cousin Kathi Hart-Cooper and I became close around the time of her first communion October 28 1955. My Mom bought me a statue of Our Blessed Mother to give her as a present, but it was really because Mom had given me (her maiden name) the middle name of Hart that bonded us and we both felt we were more than cousins; I felt I was part Hart. It turns out we would talk almost everyday on the phone from that day until we graduated from high school. These were the days of a hand held phone with the cord running under your room so that both parents knew you were on the phone. And both Kathi and my parents used to say things like "What on earth do you have to say! You just talked yesterday or an hour ago!” We had no idea that we were learning to speak about and process our feelings. I think it kept us both sane through the traumatic years of grade school and high school. In those years I was being bullied continually (up until junior year in high school with an oasis in seventh and eight grade because we moved to a new school). Kathi had and has such a terrific sense of humor she could always make me laugh! I turned quite naturally (for guidance and help) to the child Martyrs of the Roman persecutions and to children like Jacinta and Francisco Marto who were victims of great persecution after they began to see Our Lady of Fatima beginning May 13, 1917. Kathi named her first son Geoff and her second son Billy, after me. This created another bond and Billy asked me to be his Confirmation sponsor, and so I painted/wrote him an icon of St Francisco Marto.
You can google the story of Fatima or rent a movie to see and hear the whole set of miraculous events. Before October of 1917 Our Lady told the children that on October 13 there would be a sign that no one could doubt and that St Joseph would come and bring peace. This is the source of the colors and symbolism of the icon “St Joseph Shadow of the Father.” When Joseph did appear in the sky that day he and the child were both wearing red and I have the child holding a dove (Holy Spirit) of Peace.
Over 40,000 to 100,000 people came to Fatima that day to witness a sign or mock the children if nothing happened. Around noon time it was raining, a cold front filled with freezing rain had moved across the continents from Siberia (this is better explained in Chris Summa’s film "The Boy Who Found Gold”) and it was cold and muddy. The people were getting so angry that the children had to be guarded by the police. Suddenly Lucia (one of the three children) pointed to the sky...
"As if like a bolt from the blue, the clouds were wrenched apart, and the sun at its zenith appeared in all its splendor. It began to revolve vertiginously on its axis, like the most magnificent fire wheel that could be imagined, taking on all colors of the rainbow and sending forth multicolored flashes of light, producing the most astounding effect. This sublime and incomparable spectacle, which was repeated three distinct times, lasted about ten minutes. The immense multitude overcome by the evidence of such a tremendous prodigy, threw themselves on their knees.” Dr Manuel Formigao.
The sun suddenly came hurtling toward the people, and then just before it hit the earth, went back up into the sky. At that moment everyone thoroughly drenched by the rain, discovered instantly they were dry, and safe.
What was the sign of the falling sun about? Some have guessed a warning about a nuclear holocaust as experienced later in Hiroshima and Nagasaki...or one yet to come. Some have thought it was more like a falling meteorite, and some have no idea, but consider it serious enough to ponder with petitionary prayer.
"O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary, Queen of the Rosary of Fatima!
Grant that we may follow the example of Blessed Francisco and Blessed Jacinta, and of all who devote themselves to proclaiming the Gospel.
Thus we will follow all paths and everywhere make our pilgrim way; we will tear down all walls and cross every frontier, as we go to every periphery, to make known God’s justice and peace. In the joy of the Gospel, we will be the church robed in white, the whiteness washed in the blood of the Lamb, blood that today too is shed in the wars tearing our world apart. And so we will be, like you, an image of a column of light that illumines the ways of the world, making God known to all, making known to all that God exists, that God dwells in the midst of his people, yesterday, today and for all eternity...”
From Pope Francis prayer at Fatima -
12 May 2017
Pope Francis canonized Jacinta and
Francisco the next day, May 13.
Fr Bill McNichols for October 13, 2017

For St Francis Day The Epiphany - Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child

October 2nd, 2017

For St Francis Day: "The Epiphany: Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child" 1984
"... and St Lawrence the Deacon, led his persecutors looking for the wealth and treasures of the church to a house filled with the poor of Rome. He opened the door and said 'Here are the treasures of the church.' " Legend of St Lawrence
When I was living in Manhattan in the 1980's I was invited to show a "Son et Lumiere "
(sound and light) show I'd been commissioned to do in 1981 by St Joseph's Church in the West Village of NYC. The commission was to honor the 800th birthday of St Francis. There was a small house called the "Little Portion" (English for Porziuncola) founded by Friar Andre' Cirino, OFM, where the Third Order Members of St Francis would have gatherings. They heard about the slide show and invited me to bring it up to the Bronx. After visiting a few times I asked if I could join too. The decision had to be made in Rome, and in 1984 I was accepted. I spent many happy days and nights at the Little Portion and that year did my first painting for the Church....aimed like an arrow to elicit compassion, about people with AIDS. It was called "The Epiphany:Wisemen Bring Gifts to the Child." The Franciscans of NYC made this painting into a holy card and sent it round the world. I did hear later that in his memoir about AIDS, "Borrowed Time" the brilliant writer Paul Monette (1945-1995) referred to this card saying that all the Catholic Church is doing is sending out a holy card, but there were Catholic women and men giving their lives at that time for people with AIDS. This story has yet to be told. When I became an iconographer I painted/wrote an icon specifically for people with HIV/AIDS entitled "Mother of God Light In All Darkness."
There were two saints, in this first painting, I chose as the Wisemen, Sts.Francis and Aloysius bringing the first two men I met through my Hospice work in 1983, to Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Santo Nino on her lap. It took six months to complete and was done in watercolor and gouache. Mary and Child were seated on a rainbow and crescent moon from the Book of Revelation. Beneath them are the waters of death we speak about in the funeral prayers, "In Baptism, your child received the Light of Christ. Scatter the darkness now and lead him/her over the waters of death." I had always been haunted by that exquisite song, "Clara, Clara," from Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess." It goes "Clara,Clara, don't you be downhearted! Clara, Clara, don't you be sad and lonesome! Jesus is walkin' on the waters, rise up and follow him home, O Lord, O my Jesus, rise up and follow him home, follow him home."So...to symbolize the footsteps of Jesus I have red vigil lite candles bobbing on the waters.
The symbols I chose for St Francis were wishbones falling from the Crown of Thorns, symbols of hope coming from the terrible sufferings. The symbols I chose for Aloysius, (often shown with a shaft of lilies,as with St Joseph a sign of his purity), were three lilies surrounded by fire to show most of us find this inner and outer virtue, through fire. This painting eventually led to my apprenticeship with the Russian American Master Iconographer, Friar Robert Lentz,OFM, because he saw it printed in a magazine and wrote me a rather funny letter, saying, "It looks like you're trying to do Icons you should come to New Mexico and study with me." The magazine never forwarded his letter but through the providential grace of God I eventually was led to ask for an apprenticeship, and then Robert told me about the letter. I think I explained this a little better in Christopher Summa's film "The Boy Who Found Gold."
Later I created a drawing to advertise a play at the Little Portion, called "The Flower in the Hand-The Story of St Francis and the Stigmata-A Love Story, A Love Song," by Roberta Nobleman. This was one of the most beautiful plays I have ever seen, based on the ancient Italian text "The Five Considerations on the Holy Stigmata." I finally made this hand into a painting you can view it under St Francis section on the website.
I never tire of telling people that when the Friars would wash the bandages covering St Francis' wounds, they would use the water mixed with his blood to heal sick animals and people. This is hope for us that our wounds can even now or eventually be used for the healing of others too. I believe most of our ancient and contemporary Prophets, who have been publicly mocked or martyred in various ways, prove that this is so...
"Dearest Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Poor and Oppressed
we watch full of reverence and joy as St Francis and St Aloysius bring the gifts of
these two people afflicted with AIDS to the Holy Child in your arms, who is so eager to receive them.
Teach us to find and embrace your Son Jesus in all peoples, but most especially those who are in greatest need and who suffer most.
Amen" (1984:NYC)
Fr Bill McNichols
October 2017

Holy Father Pedro Arrupe, SJ in Hiroshima with the Christ Child

September 25th, 2017

Holy Father Pedro Arrupe, SJ in Hiroshima with the Christ Child
(For Arrupe College in Chicago)
"violets here and there
in the ruins
of my burnt house"
Shokyu-Ni
1713-1781

"a sparrows' nest
perhaps
inside the A-bomb dome"
Kinichi Sawaki
1919-2001

Dear Fr. Katsouros,
Here are some notes, not really a complete statement yet...a Beginning of my own understanding of what I was given to paint...but with the latest news these days I'm sure this is not all there is to say about nuclear weapons or war. We stand right now in a most dangerous place, again. In fact I may use this as a blog because we are still in the midst of an unresolved crisis.
I wanted to image Fr Arrupe in prayer in Japan but not the Iconic photograph that you always see and is as impossible to recreate in a better way-as is Our Lady of Guadalupe or the Shroud of Turin.
It is not well known that Fr Arrupe survived Hiroshima and the utter devastation. The swirling sun is a visual reference to the bomb and the prophetic miracle of the sun at Fatima on October 13, 1917. We don't know what that spinning sun meant...was it a meteorite, atom bomb, or some other danger of falling fire?
How do you depict that scene of Hiroshima or Nagasaki in a way that is redemptive and not just horrifying?
I found many photographs of the aftermath and one had a, Shinto Gate still standing.
This Torii Shinto Gate symbolically marks the transition from the profane to the sacred. This still standing gate is (to me) a miraculous sign that the sacred, of that ancient culture, had not been completely destroyed. There was also a head of a statue of Mary and a Church which was not completely destroyed, if I remember correctly Hiroshima and Nagasaki had the two greatest populations of Christians. But I wanted the visual emphasis on all the Japanese . So I also placed a Japanese looking ( (although he could be seen as "every child") Christ Child near to Fr Arrupe. He is wearing a traditional garb as I found in a picture I'll send you , with an Origami-like dove of the Holy Spirit on his chest... or coming from his heart . The colors most often used for Jesus are blue (divinity) over red (humanity) - here the red has faded into a salmon color and the blue is still vibrant . The Child is looking first at the horrendous scene around him on the ground....devastation everywhere. But beneath his feet, because he is "the resurrection and the life" small flowers or violets begin to sprout.
The letters above the Child are Japanese for "Jesus Christ" and the letters near Fr Arrupe are "Holy Priest Pedro." These were obtained from a friend who knows a Jesuit priest at Sophia University in Tokyo.
I feel this is all I can say now, when I began this icon the nuclear threat was not present and hopefully we will reflect on what has been and listen to the words of the Lost Child from the Gospel of Luke about "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's House?" (Luke 2:49) And maybe we will see the whole Earth as His House we are not permitted to destroy? For further contemplation you might look into Thomas Merton's poem "Original Child Bomb" , the name the Japanese gave to the bomb, which expresses a horrific new child and religion. The poem is written in a chilling bureaucratic style to awaken us from The Nightmare of God ( Daniel Berrigan's title for his commentary on The Book of Revelation) completely antithetical to the Gospel of Jesus. As I write this we still have time and Holy Hope...
Blessings with love and prayers to you and all faculty and students at Arrupe College,
Fr Bill
September 2017

Holy Passion Bearer Mychal Judge, OFM

September 10th, 2017

Holy Passion Bearer Mychal Judge, OFM
11 May 1933 - 11 September 2001
" A passion-bearer is one who faces his death in a Christ-like manner. Unlike martyrs, passion bearers are not explicitly killed for their Orthodox faith, though they hold to that faith with piety and true love of God."
orthodoxwiki.org
I met Mychal in the late 1980's when he showed up at our monthly Mass for People with AIDS at Our Lady of Guadalupe church on 14st. This was a church where both Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton would go to pray with the Mother of the Americas.
Sometimes after the Mass a group of men and women would go to a diner to get some dinner and Mychal would join us. I remember him as one of those people who had the gift of crossing every boundary Church or politics could imagine, and meet people as they were. I often compare him to Martin Sheen the actor and activist who is the same kind of person. He was very lovable, warm and had a real depth of faith attested to by his spiritual director Fr John McNeill. Mychal also carried an observable aura of sorrow around him, which really made him approachable to those who were feeling abandoned and lonely. I think personally, it's the same kind of gravity mixed with joy you see in many public "saints" like Pope Francis or Fr Jim Martin .I did not get a chance to spend much time with him because we were both so busy, something I now regret. What time we did spend is etched in my memory and soul forever. If you want to go deeper into Mychal's life so much is available on the internet.
This icon was commissioned by one of Mychal's closest friends , Brendan Fay. Brendan also co-produced the film on Mychal, "The Saint of 9/11" directed by Glen Holsten and narrated by Sir Ian McKellen.
The imagery of this icon comes basically from two sources:
First, the icon of The Protecting Veil of the Mother of God. Mary is depicted in these icons holding her own veil, which a few women mystics (i.e. Maria Valtorta) see as the veil she used to cover the nakedness of Christ after he was stripped right before he was nailed to the Cross. The tradition of the veil in these icons, is that Mary holds it over a church which is about to be attacked. Mychal, as the first labeled victim of the terrorism of that horrific day, holds the protecting veil to gather the thousands of souls coming to Heaven.
Second the inclusion of the lamenting figure of St Francis. I will never forget the drawing of St Francis weeping over his city San Francisco and the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk in 1978. It shows the power of art and sums up what many words cannot say. Mychal was a son of Francis and his holy father is nearby to gather the souls with him.
In these days of daily violence, verbal and physical, of ferocious hurricanes, fires, and frightening instability , we turn to the saint of 9/11 for holy protection. I'd like to offer you now his beautiful prayer:
"Lord, take me where you want me to go;
Let me meet who you want me to meet;
Tell me what you want me to say, and
Keep me out of your way."
Fr Mychal Judge, OFM

Fr Bill McNichols
10 September 2017

The Bride - The Church

September 4th, 2017

The Bride : The Church
"This mystery is very great, but I speak concerning the relationship of Christ and the Church." Ephesians 5:32
This is a very brief description of a complex yet mystical image St Paul calls a great mystery, but I trust you can begin a meditation with what I try to say .As we draw near to the birth of Our Blessed Mother, September 8, I think of the Bride.
This is another image I had wanted to paint for so long but never had the time. It was during the crisis of abuses in the Church that I turned to Cardinal Henri de Lubac's unique and magnificent book called "The Splendor of the Church" written in a form of exile, when he had been silenced. There is no trace of bitterness or victimization in his book, only a scholarly, lovely book about the Bride. It's (Her) beauty is incomparable and if you get a chance to meditate with the book you won't be disappointed.
For many years Church theologians argued about Revelation 12 and the Woman Clothed With The Sun; was this Mary giving birth or was it the Church giving birth? They ultimately decided it was a vision of both.
Cardinal Hans Urs von Balthasar says that some people are born with a "Church soul." By that he means that they (though imperfect and sinners like everybody else in the church) carry the church with them and worry or continue to love and agonize about Her like some parents do over their children. We have a growing list of 35 Doctors of the Church who are men and women with church souls, as well as a catalog of saints, prophets and holy women and men too numerous to mention.
What is your image of the church? From our two thousand year history we have a few I can mention beginning with the Savior and His apostles and disciples. Then the Woman in Revelation 12. The people in small or large homes gathered around the Eucharist in St Paul's letters, the church of the catacombs, the Ship or Barque of St Peter, the basilicas, Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals, the Vatican itself, tiny churches and capillas ... Vatican II renewed and refreshed the striking image of the people of God. We all have so many images of church.
This image is of a radiant Bride who is perpetually young and pregnant. She walks barefoot through two thousand years of history amidst great dangers from within the church and without. But She cannot be touched or hurt. She is clothed with the sun or in this image, a luminous radiance that protects Her. She will keep walking carrying (Andrea della Robbia's medallion of) the Holy Child, the hand of the Father above Her, and the Holy Spirit guiding Her forward; for the Spirit always moves forward with infinite creativity and new life.
I remember reading in Letter XVII of "Meditations On The Tarot: A Journey Into Christian Hermeticism" (by Anonymous 1985, Element Press) that the devil is only capable of repetition, evil ad nauseum, over and over and over. God alone is capable of miracles, of bringing life out of death and it's many grotesque faces we call the culture of death. God alone can put flesh on the dead dry bones in the vision of Ezekiel. The Spirit hovered over the void in Genesis and the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead. We say in preface number 6 at Mass that we live and move and have our being in God - as if we're fish in the giant ocean of God - even if we are unaware or too preoccupied to notice we live in Him.
I think our image of the church is as important as our image of God, in that we live as the church we image. I hope for some people this image will be helpful and hopeful.
Happy Birthday Blessed Mother!
You who are an image of the church
Help us to love Her and bring the Gospel of your Son Jesus
Into our waiting world now and until we are forever
Home in the Most Holy Trinity and
Home with you
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols
Labor Day September 2017
http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/…/the-bride-the-chu…

Princess Diana - The Queen of Hearts

August 24th, 2017

Escaping the Dark Night - August 1578 - San Juan de la Cruz

August 22nd, 2017

Escaping the Dark Night, August 1578: San Juan de la Cruz

"Before, I knew you only by hearsay
but now, having seen you with my own eyes,
I retract what I have said,
and repent in dust and ashes."
Job 42:5,6

"Where did you hide,
My love, leaving me thus to moan?
Like the stag, you fled,
Leaving in me this wound;
I ran calling loud, but you were gone."
San Juan de la Cruz
Spiritual Canticle

"I, I who have nothing
I, I who am no one
Adore you, and want you so.
I'm just a no one, with nothing to give you but
Oh I love you."
Carlo Donido
Giulio Rapetti

"Oh, there are strange rivers, rivers that we cannot see
And there are strange rivers who know our destiny
And there are strange rivers who run your love to me."
John Stewart

"The summer had inhaled and held its breath too long
The winter looked the same, as if it never had gone
And through an open window where no curtain hung
I saw you
I saw you
Comin' back to me."
Marty Balin

"John of the Cross speaks to people who feel unable to change. We may have sensed in our lives a call to freedom,
to wholeness, to more than what we are now.
John felt this as a call to reach out for God..."
The Impact of God : Soundings From St John of the Cross
by Iain Matthew, OCD

I found this truly wonderful, healing book in a Jesuit House in Dublin. I could tell - practically across the room -by the painted face on the spine of the book, it was either St Bruno or St John of the Cross. In 1998 there were not many books on either man. I then asked the Jesuits there; could I have it ? They said yes . This was late December 1997 and my Father had recently died on November 25, 1997. The book was so healing I just bought a notebook and began to copy it word for word, (and later gave the notebook to my niece Marjy). Now I can't remember if I copied the whole book or just a few chapters, but I've never tried to copy a whole book since that December. I think when you're grieving it helps to do something "mechanical "which doesn't take much thought. Finding words by Iain Matthew, around my grief helped so much, because I could not express what I was feeling- even to myself. This book is still one of the best I know on St John, and I tell everybody about it. Not too long after, in 1999 I met Mirabai Starr who had beautifully translated St John's
"The Dark Night of the Soul" while she was struggling and in the depths of grief , with her daughter Jenny's premature death.
I remember two things vividly from Iain Matthew's book:
That John and his brother Francisco used to love to lay out in the fields at night and look into the stars of the "dark night." Centuries before Dionysius the Areopagite had written mystically about the "dazzling darkness" but John was too young then to know of his work. He and Francisco saw this without prompting.
The other incident that has never left me, is when John escaped from his tiny, latrine, prison cell, in August 1578 (he was imprisoned December 1577) and was very very fragile and emaciated. He made his way to a Carmelite convent and when they saw him, they were so overjoyed the nuns wanted to sing him a happy Te Deum Hymn. John was shaken badly and held onto something like a banister, and motioned to the sisters with one hand - No, no, no. He was not yet ready to rejoice.
St John of the Cross is the poetic giant (at only about 4' 11" tall) who writes achingly and most expressively about our deep life-long longing for God; this is truly an understatement.
Some references for things I have found helpful:
• The icon of Juan de la Cruz by my teacher Friar Robert Lentz, OFM
•"Search For Nothing" by Richard Hardy
a magnificent sung version of the poem The Dark Night, "One Dark Night" by John Michael Talbot and his version of "O Living Flame of Love."
• Mirabai's translations of both John and Teresa of Avila
• St John of the Cross by Antonio de Nicolas
• anything by the Carmelites, Iain Matthew or Noel Dermot O'Donoghue
This monochromatic image of a gaunt and sickly John in prison was a meditation for me - that we do eventually, come out of our dark nights, but no one can tell you when. Grief has its own time and even the One experiencing the emptiness etc, does not know the time of its fulfillment.
I'm going to quote Iain Matthew on St John and Our Mother because it's so relevant for now:
"When John speaks of the Mother of Jesus, it is in this connection. She moved freely, refusing to let herself be paralyzed by past or future. In her mountain climb, she renounced the need for preplanned handholds, opting instead to surrender to the guidance, the hand of Another. Her hope set her free to be possessed fully in each moment by the Holy Spirit.
As with faith, so with hope, John can emphasize a letting-go, in this case of past and future, only because he is convinced that God is hovering, pressing, to come in and fill the gap. And he will fill it:
'Where God is concerned, hope attains as much as it hopes for.' "
Page 107

Dear St John of the Cross
You found God in the most painful situations in your life
by waiting-in-hope-in-the-darkness.
Help us Teach us Show us, your way of trust and
enduring love.
Amen

Fr Bill McNichols
August 2017

Holy New Martyr Blessed Franz Jaggerstatter

August 8th, 2017

Holy New Martyr Blessed Franz Jaggerstatter
"Through His bitter suffering and death, Christ freed us only from eternal death, not from temporal suffering and moral death. But Christ, too, demands a public confession of faith, just as the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler does from his followers....I am convinced that it is still best that I speak the truth, even if it costs me my life....I cannot and may not take an oath in favor of a government that is fighting an unjust war....I thank you dear Jesus, too, that I am privileged to suffer and even die for Him...The heart of Jesus, the heart of Mary, and my own heart are one, united for time and eternity. Mary with Child so dear, give us all your blessings."

From a letter Franz wrote from prison to his wife and children.
This young Austrian prophet, husband, father, and member of the Third Order of St Francis refused to be inducted into Hitler's Army and was beheaded on August 9, 1943. St Edith Stein died at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942.
Franz was beatified and declared a martyr on October 26, 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI. His daughters and wife, Franceska , attended his beatification.

"Born under that murky, ambiguous sign: not a double cross, so to speak, but a bent cross, disabled,tampered with, horribly altered, crooked, nightmarish. Dare we admit it: this is the Cross which (despite all frantic denials) we too are born under? Or the one we create for ourselves? I would not venture that Franz saw this from the first (who does?)-only that he saw it eventually. That cross hideously altered in form: a cross that favors deception, war making, unaccountability. He saw. And he told what he saw. And then he died in witness to what he saw....His world was no vacuum; more like a tornado . The chariot of Nazi Germany rolled on like a wheel of fire, the wheels ground to bits whoever, by mischance or heroic purpose, put themselves in the way. Franz put himself in the way...Indeed, Austria is under the gun (and loves it, as the wild welcome given Hitler and the plebiscite showed !). But for Franz the world is going to very hell. In a tank. In a (newly created) bomber. In a blitzkrieg. In a racing train, as he saw in a dream...This is appalling, unbearable. Christians are climbing aboard. Priests and bishops. And then the faithful...That train, streaming toward him in the darkness: All aboard for hell ! What to do ? The burden of asking one's soul, again and again, and with little help from others - what to do ?
...He was condemned to die; and then to stay dead. Or so they thought , those who thought for, or opined for, church and state...To speak of today: it is no longer Hitler's death train we ride, the train of the living dead. Or is it ? It is. The same train. Only if possible (it is possible), the train is longer, faster, more commodious...As for Franz, he will not go away. He will not go away from the church that sent him on his way alone. His way, which should have been the way of the church. So he lingers, half unwelcome. Like a speechless mouth, like a mysterious cry, hovering on the air, seeking a hearing.
Listen: 'Love your enemies, do good to those who maltreat you. Walk another mile. Refuse the easy ride, damnation as destination. Is this to be accounted the resurrection of Franz - that the gospel should at last gain a hearing ?"
From "The Bride: Images of the Church"
by Daniel Berrigan, SJ
Orbis Books 2000

"Lord,
Fill us with that spirit of courage
which gave your Martyr Blessed Franz
strength to offer his life in faithful witness.
Help us to learn from him to cherish your law
and to obey you rather than men.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
One God, forever and ever."
Amen
Fr Bill McNichols + August 2017

I Come With Three Wounds - Llego ' Con Tres Heridas

August 1st, 2017

"...I wish to thank you for your kind letter and the copy you enclosed of your painting of the Deposition. Your reproduction is most impressive and the theme - amor, muerte, vida -is inspiring. I would be quite anxious to see the original painting, for, as I suspect, it must be truly awe inspiring. I was humbled by the fact that you chose my picture as a model for the Jesuit laboring under the burden of Christ. I pray that the Spirit will enlighten and strengthen me to shoulder or 'take on' Christ more completely.
I am pleased with the work you and your fellow artists are doing. In many ways you have re-opened a door to inspired creativity that releases the human spirit from materialistic bondage as it searches for its Creator; thereby you have performed a noble service in your dedication to the following of your chosen apostolate..."
Fr Pedro Arrupe, SJ
Personal correspondence from
December 17, 1975
"I Come With Three Wounds : Llego ' Con Tres Heridas"
(Finding God In All Things)
Often I reference music . It's been a huge part of my life and I think most everyone 's life . My Mom had 78's going continually on the phonograph, she loved Nat King Cole, Perry Como,and Mario Lanza, Rosemary Clooney ... I can still hear her singing "Young At Heart" with Sinatra, this was before we had the 33 and 45 records. My brother Steve had a swing band orchestra , and a Jazz combo, with my other brother Bob on trumpet. They would practice in our basement and I'd sit on the stairs and hear those beautiful melodies of the "crooner era" as well as the genius work of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. I'd go into my brothers' rooms and take their records which included everything from Johnny Mathis, to Camelot , to Elvis etc....and then in 1960 suddenly it seemed, out of nowhere came Joan Baez. To my ears it sounded as if a lonely prophet had made a record for all the suffering souls in our land and world, singing with a strong,fierce, incredibly powerful, plaintive voice - with one guitar and a kind of majestic, noble and ethereal beauty. It's difficult to imagine her solitary impact or her deep effect on an 11 year old boy. Of course there were other folk singers before her , but she was the first one I heard. Joan Baez is still a noble and respected prophet to me. Gradually Beatniks turned into Hippies and the Beatles brought a world change, so much so, that me, a 16 or 17 year old boy in Denver was riding around in the car listening to the sitar and becoming aware of completely different and exotic sounds as well as (through osmosis) other world religions.
In 1974 while I was teaching Art at Regis High in Denver Joan Baez put out her first full Spanish Album "Gracias a la Vida." Ultimately, this would lead me to a deep love and reverence for the Hispanic cultures and specifically to live in New Mexico.
One song on that album was Llego' Con Tres Heridas : I Come With Three Wounds; one of love, one of death, one of life , a poem by Miguel Hernandez who died in Spain in the civil war. During a lonely dark spiritual time I decided to paint an oil painting about what it was like in the world ( Good Friday, Holy Saturday...)when Jesus was dead, because I couldn't feel him. St Therese was once seen (unbeknownst to her) knocking on the tabernacle door saying "Jesu! Are you there !?"
At that time Fr Pedro Arrupe was General of the Jesuits (I was so blessed to meet him "accidentally" in an elevator in St Louis) and I chose his likeness for the man taking down Christ (in art this is called a "Deposition")from the Cross. The sun is eclipsed overhead just as the Gospels describe. The man is struggling to hold him and lets out a cry of grief. I painted him in stripes because in Isaiah the prophet says "...by his stripes (flagellation marks) we are healed," Isaiah 53:5. I sent a copy of the painting to Fr Arrupe and he responded with one of the most humble and beautiful letters I have ever received. The letter is framed and is still next to the painting in the Regis Jesuit Community Chapel. Not only because Fr Arrupe was Basque as was St Ignatius, but we all (well not all, some did not like him) felt he was "kinda" St Ignatius "reincarnated." He fit the description that St Philip Neri, and centuries later Adrienne von Speyr gave of Ignatius. Both saw him as sun-like, emanating light and the love of God . Adrienne said nobody points to God with such shrewd intelligence as Ignatius. Fr Arrupe was exactly that way in his radiance and you felt (as you also did with St John Paul II) that you actually stepped into his sphere of sanctity. There are those people who do not hold back their love, because their love has become transformed into a direct way for God to reach you.
One time I was giving a power point show on my early art and the later images and icons, and I spoke about this 1975 painting. I said I was in a very dark time and didn't feel Jesus was alive for me. A woman raised her hand and said "But look. He's kissing the man on the head!" Even though I was the painter I never realized that until she showed me. That was a powerful lesson for me, that people when they spend the time contemplating a picture or icon, can teach you so much about your own work.
Fr Bill McNichols
31 July 2017
Feast of Holy Father St Ignatius Loyola

The Shrine of St Anne

July 26th, 2017

The Shrine of St Anne
This was a commission for the Church in Arvada, Colorado with the name The Shrine of St Anne. They were having their 75th Anniversary and I opened my book of Greek Icons and found this lovely depiction of Grandmother Anne holding her daughter Mary, holding the Christ Child. To me it looked so childlike and yet Anne looked so elegant too. The only change I made was to have Anne pointing to the Child...as adult images of Mary shown deferring to Jesus with such profound humility. So it seemed a wonderful way of showing through this icon that St Anne is herself, the shrine. At that time I was reading Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's life of Christ where she begins with lives and tribulations of many of Jesus' ancestors. For some people these private revelations are no more than novels because they are not in the Bible. But for me they are very much worth contemplating because they are fleshed out so intimately that the soul is nourished by reading them. In our tradition over the centuries many holy women have been given these revelations like St Bridget of Sweden, Anne Catherine Emmerich, Maria Cecilia Baij, Maria of Agreda, Maria Valtorta, and Adrienne von Speyr to name a few. Each one brings you something, and I think of them as "homilies" born of great devotion and prayer. As long as you know they are not the Hebrew Bible or the Gospels there is no harm in praying with them. For instance, Bridget talks of seeing the Holy Family gathered at their humble table with not enough to eat. Maria Baij tells of three stars appearing above the house of St Joseph, the night he was born to foretell that the "earthly three or trinity" was just beginning. Maria Valtorta sees St Joseph give the Child Jesus his first carpentry lesson. Anne Catherine watches the Passion of Christ which was so awfully powerful, that when the great Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins heard it read by a Jesuit when the community was at table, he broke down sobbing. So one great inspiration feeds another. The legend of St Anne and St Joachim and the birth of Mary has never been painted so beautifully as by Giotto di Bondone in the Enrico Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, Italy (dedicated 25 March 1305). I love the image of the Archangel Gabriel flying through St Anne's window, and St Joachim asleep being visited by the Archangel too. Then the couple joyfully meeting and kissing under the Golden Gate.
Here is a shortened version of a litany to St Anne (who is often lovingly invoked in French Canada to find a spouse)
Good St Anne, Mother of Mary, and Spouse of St Joachim,
Pray for us
Steadfast St Anne, Miracle of Patience,
Pray for us
Holy St Anne, Ark of the Covenant and
Root of Jesse
Pray for us
Gracious St Anne, Dawn of Hope and
Consolation of the Afflicted
Pray for us
Glorious St Anne, Rose of Nazareth and
Grandmother of the Messiah
Pray for us
Fr Bill McNichols
26 July 2017

St Mary Magdalen - Contemplative of Contemplatives

July 21st, 2017

St Mary Magdalen : Contemplative of Contemplatives
22 July 2017
"This is the kind of story," Dorothy wrote, "that infuriates those who term us superstitious."
Page 104
Dorothy Day : The World Will Be Saved By Beauty
By Kate Hennessy
Perhaps a better word or concept of/for piety, is the Hindu notion of Bahkti which is a Sanskrit word referring to a very warm, devotional and loving means of practicing or praying. It's difficult to describe it's so bodily too. I think especially of the 15th century Hindu poet Mirabai's ecstatic poems of devotion to the "Dark One," Krishna. Piety is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and we ask for this gift. Piety sours into something awful when we impose our personal devotions on others. We've all experienced this self-righteous imposition, or we might have done it ourselves to others in a phase of zeal gone blind. Dorothy's daughter Tamar spoke of this painful (for and to others) period of Dorothy's extended conversion. The only check to this kind of soul-abuse is to be aware of our sinfulness (for me the best example is Pope Francis) which can humble you and, in a word or phrase I'd say - it's better to avoid "finger wagging piety" by way of inviting people to share what you love.
My first picture of St Mary Magdalen was the Crucifixion I drew at age 5. I also put her image in Beato Fra Angelico's icon and the first icon I created of her was called Apostle to the Apostles, her title in the Eastern Churches. Then recently I did a round third icon of the legend of Mary Magdalen preaching to Pontius Pilate after the Resurrection. Now I have a fourth icon commissioned of her also. When I was commissioned to do the second icon I remembered those beautiful Giotto paintings of her being lifted daily to heaven by the Angels. These images come from legends of her life I found in Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's Life of Christ and in a biography of Mary Magdalen by Edith Filliette who founded the Mary Magdalen Society in 1979 and died in 1988.
The legends tell of Mary living in a Cave in Sainte Baume, near Marseille and living literally on her very "much alive-memories" of being near Jesus while he was on earth. Testimonies from hardened skeptical witnesses tell of Anne Catherine Emmerich's twelve years of living on nothing but Holy Communion (the Eucharistic Host).They watched her 24/7 and some became close to her after watching, that they became convinced she was "the real thing".
I guess for me these stories are about a love of God so overwhelming that this love is only fed by God. Don't you have times you are so hungry for God and the solace of a spiritual life that you blame everyone and everything around you for not being enough? And then you turn to God in a prayer and slowly get reconciled to your life again? Reading about Dorothy I see her struggling to put together her personal piety and her mission to renew the church like St Francis. Like Mary Magdalen she was an apostle and a contemplative. I'm going to close with a prayer very dear to St Ignatius, who's feast is coming closer, and a prayer which verbalizes this kind of love : (PS for those who like music I think kd lang must've known this prayer when she wrote "Wash Me Clean" it has the same imploring yet uplifting quality ...)
The Anima Christi
Soul of Christ, sanctify me
Body of Christ, save me
Blood of Christ, inebriate me
Water from the side of Christ, wash me
Passion of Christ, strengthen me
O good Jesus, hear me
Within thy wounds, hide me
Permit me not to be separated from thee
From the wicked foe, defend me
At the hour of my death, call me
And bid me to come to thee
That with thy saints I may praise thee
Forever and ever...
Amen

Fr Bill McNichols
22 July 2017
Dearest Lord,
Send your Holy Spirit to give us the apostolic gift of piety.
St Mary Magdalen and Servant of God Dorothy Day, please be the new patrons of all of us trying to put together so many contradictions in ourselves and especially at this moment in our troubled times. Watching you ,dear heavenly friends, we know this is possible.
Amen... for now

Our Lady of Mt Carmel -16 July 2017

July 14th, 2017

Our Lady of Mt Carmel : 16 July 2017
"As soon as the reader has penetrated to the substance of this book, he will understand why it is dedicated to Our Lady of Mt Carmel. It is chiefly concerned with the doctrine of the Carmelite theologian, St John of the Cross. Then again under her title (among others ) of Our Lady of Mt Carmel the Blessed Virgin is venerated as patroness of contemplatives and, above all, those who try to share with others the fruits of their contemplation. The whole aim of the Order founded in her honor is to enable its members to reach the height of contemplation under her guidance and to bring others to the same end, aided by her intercession.
There is no member of the Church who does not owe something to Carmel. But there are few who owe more to the saints of Carmel and to its Queen than does the author. Above all, this book was written, so to speak, under her direction and tutelage."
From the introduction to:
The Ascent To Truth
Thomas Merton 1951

"This was the first time I had been struck by such a feeling of spirituality in anyone who professed Christianity."
The Dalai Lama

A blessed feast of Our Lady of Mt Carmel to all those who love Our Mother and anyone "living in the what" John of the Cross calls the Dark Night... and anyone still seeking, trying to live within a life of prayer. So many of us feel this is a life-long journey. So let's never give up (!) because God blesses all our attempts to come closer to His infinite love.
Fr Bill McNichols

Looking For God Outside and Within - Self Portraits With Symbols 1977 and 2014

July 7th, 2017

Looking For God Outside and Within :Self Portraits With Symbols 1977 and 2014

In the time of selfies it's probably not necessary to explain why artists have long been commissioned to paint portraits or why they have looked into themselves to find something of the mystery of the meaning of their lives. There is a long tradition of painters placing themselves in their art, such as Beato Fra Angelico, Artemisia Gentileschi, El Greco, Michelangelo, or doing self portraits like Durer, Rembrandt, Mary Cassatt, Edvard Munch, Van Gogh and of course, Frida Kahlo and Joni Mitchell, are some of the most widely known.
I began my first Self Portrait With Symbols in 1977 strongly influenced by the Russian children's book artist Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942). I first discovered his illustrations while teaching high school art at Regis High School, and I fell in love with his drawings and paintings too. On the covers of many of his children's book he would surround the central image with little boxes of flowers, goblins or whatever enhanced the fairy tale.
This Russian tradition began with what is called "talking icons" where the Saint is surrounded by small images from his or her life. This is actually the beginning of children's books. I could go on and on about my favorite illustrators, but I guess the question is why do a self portrait as a cover for a children's story and where did it lead? At that time my dream was to be an illustrator and I really had no idea that two of my favorite artists El Greco and Ivan Bilibin had anything to do with Icons.
In his extraordinary autobiography, "Balancing Heaven and Earth" the great-souled Jungian master Robert Johnson has an honestly-lived theory that God calls some people to be "claimed by the inner life" and if you feel that call, you will be led by "slender threads" which are there for you just in time to lead you to the next part of your life. I did these two self portraits to look into my own beginning of a life as an artist who is also a priest, and then the latter part of trying to live into that continuing mystery. One of the things I have learned is you have to keep something, as Jesus seriously counseled, of the child within you or you cannot see or find the true kingdom of God. When I see my siblings surrounded by grandchildren, I can see God provides this naturally for them. Those without children must work a bit harder to stay young at heart and not become jaded, hard hearted. My prayer for this birthday is to paraphrase the very brief Psalm 131:
O Lord let me not get too stuck in fear or any feelings
inside that stop me from giving You back any gift
You gave to me-to give away.
Make me an "Archer of Love" to send these gifts into the
Church, the Bride and into all the waiting
Human Hearts.
Then let me rest like a little child in Your arms.
Let me continue to see the wonders of life
as a child and not fall into cynicism or despair.
Open my heart (again and again) to You and the
World of people made for Infinite
Love, which is only You.
Amen
Fr. Bill
10 July 2017

Sadhu Sundar Singh

May 26th, 2017

Sadhu Sundar Singh
3 September 1889 - ? April 1929
I met the Sadhu through a book of his writings published in the wonderful series by Robert Ellsberg and Orbis Press the "Spiritual Masters". Then I read the beautiful biography by A.J.Appasamy which spoke of the miraculous meeting of the Sadhu with the tiger, and I couldn't wait to paint this scene from his life. This one event appeared to be symbolic of the life of a man, who ,like St Francis, seemed to bring Christianity back to life again. Today I have been viewing videos of the Sadhu, and wanted to share this image with you.
In April of 1929 he left for a missionary visit to Tibet where he had previously been welcomed and hated too, in fact he had been stoned, and once thrown into a well. This time he did not return. It is assumed he was martyred during that last visit . I believe when you read about this man, you will never forget him, his life has that luminous power of Christ which flows right into you.
Fr Bill McNichols
25 May 2017

Mother of Fairest Love for Mothers Day 2017

May 11th, 2017

Mother of Fairest Love for Mother's Day 2017
In 1995 I had just finished the beautiful book by Carol Lee Flinders, "Enduring Grace : Portraits of Seven Women Mystics" and was inspired to work on Mechtild of Magdeburg. My Mom called concerned about a young couple she had met and wanted me to paint a very tender Mother of God for them. I had her pick her favorite icon out of a book of Russian Icons I showed her. She choose an exquisite version of the Kasperov Icon. The legend of this icon is that it was so ancient and had been naturally darkened by time, that the features were hardly recognizable. One night in February of 1840 the owner of the icon, Mrs Kasperova had been praying to Our Mother in great need and grief, when she noticed the features of the icon begin to emerge. And so she had the icon cleaned and renewed and this began a series of miraculous events through the intercession of the Mother of God.
Because Mom loved this icon I painted another one for the young couple she was interceding for, and secretly painted the Kasperov Icon for her, as a surprise, "For Marjory With Love." I then placed my Dad's name at the top left side and all my siblings names around the icon : Stephen, Robert, me, Mary and Marjory.
A blessed and happy Mother's Day to all Mothers!

Fr Bill McNichols
May 2017

Blessed Solanus Casey , OFM , Cap

May 4th, 2017

Blessed Solanus Casey, OFM, Cap
25 November 1870 - 31 July 1957
1982 was the eight hundredth anniversary of St Francis' birth, and so many tributes to Francis happened around that year, including the most incredible and beautiful double album (now on CD) by John Michael Talbot "Troubadour of the Great King." I think I wore out those records more than once. That year the whole world seemed Franciscan and I was invited to create a slide presentation on Francis' life by St Joseph's church in the West Village. Later I was asked to take that same presentation up to the Bronx to a Third Order group of Franciscans started by Fr Andre' Cirino, OFM, which I gradually could not help but join, in 1983. Andre' remains one of the great mentors of my life. It was through these Franciscans I first heard of Solanus. Later I visited his tomb in Detroit, to ask for help in working with the dying. It was in Detroit I found the only book available on Solanus at that time, now a classic, by James Patrick Derum, "The Porter of St Bonaventure's."
Now I believe there are many books, including two wonderful accounts I have read by Catherine Odell and Michael Crosby, OFM, Cap. It was Fr Crosby who commissioned this icon.
The icon shows Fr Solanus with a large soup pot getting ready to feed you , as he fed so many during his life, physically and spiritually. I placed the Blessed Mother in a mandala hovering near him because one of the set of books that nourished him most in his life, was the four volumes of the Mystical City of God , the life of the Mother of God by Venerable Maria of Agreda. I believe I read in the book by Derum, that Solanus read the entire set of books, four times through, on his knees.
During his life there were so many, many miracles, like Padre Pio, that you wonder why it has taken so long for him to be beatified? The letters near him refer to his miracles and gifts of healing... "Holy Solanus Thaumaturgus." He also had a sense of humor and often when people would come to him worrying, or trying to control everything and everyone, he'd say,
"Aren't we going to let God do Anything !!?? "
I think this is enough of an introduction to Fr Solanus. In him you will find a loving guide, friend, and someone who lived in God continually, who always preached one of the great themes of St Francis - Gratitude. Solanus often urged people, as they'd ask for something from Heaven, to have hope and to,
"Thank God ahead of time."

Fr Bill McNichols
4 May 2017

Jesus Christ Seraphic Guardian of the Spilled Blood

April 28th, 2017

Jesus Christ Seraphic Guardian of the Spilled Blood

Here it is just near the beginning of May and why write a blog about this icon concerning the Wounds? Two reasons :
1) The Season of Easter is the season of the post resurrection appearances of Jesus where he shows us his wounds
2) I am corresponding with a dear Sister in Norwich (Great Britain) who has a metal print of this icon and I owe her an explanation, so ....

Dear Sister,
I've been meaning to write to you for months, about this icon, but now in the Easter season (as well as Autumn when Francis and Padre Pio received the Wounds) seems to be a good time ......One very curious observation and question ; more women have received the wounds than men. Doesn't this make them a second Christ or an icon or image of Christ? With all these contemporary battles in the church about men and women ...I wonder.
We believe the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead and my understanding of the gospels is that His body was healed of all the horrific damage of His flagellation and crucifixion, except the five wounds. Have you ever wondered why? Well, I have for over 60 years. In the New Mexican Church which is the oldest tradition in the US, over 500 years, there is also a devotion to the shoulder wound, where he carried the Cross, as well as the other five.
I believe my understanding of the passion, blood and wounds of Christ come very early from my elementary teachers, the Sisters of the Precious Blood. These women laid the groundwork of a devotion, quite naturally, (almost like osmosis) and I drew my first Crucifixion at age 5.
Suffice it to say this pull towards the Wounds of Christ, as well as wounded saints, has been the subject of many drawings and paintings in my life . I am most fond of the painting of Francis receiving the Wounds hanging in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard by Taddeo Gaddi (I once made a retreat in Boston where I visited this painting every day) and of course the Giotto's in Florence and Assisi. This particular two winged Seraph is a copy of a fresco by Giotto I saw in a book in 1992 and cannot find it now, or I'd tell you where to look. Around the same time two events occurred in the News which sparked my desire to paint the Seraph for all those people who are tragically killed and especially the ones no one hears about or knows. The first event was the finding of the Romanov bodies or charred remains in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The second was the violent murder of 22 year old Navy officer Allen Schindler, who was beaten to death because he was gay, by two other fellow shipmates in Sasebo, Nagasaki.
The Russian Orthodox decided to build a church on the spot of the Romanov burial ground called "The Church On The Spilled Blood." I thought to myself , in the west we would never call a church by that graphic, yet profoundly evocative title. Then, I decided to honor every human tragic murder with an icon of Christ which would say in painted form, the words of God in the King James Version of Genesis 4:10 "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground!"
The late Prophet Daniel Berrigan once said that the first murder in the Bible was a brother killing a brother, and it's been that way ever since.
We all have wounds. Some are hidden, some are even beneficial in that they awaken compassion for others .... and some cause us to wound others. I know for me, mine won't stay hidden so I'm trying to use them to feel the wounds of others as was the idea behind Henri Nouwen's famous book " The Wounded Healer." I'm afraid this is not always the case with Henri or myself. Yet is this the reason the Wounds of Jesus and our wounds do not disappear? Of course Christ was innocent and never intentionally hurt anyone, and as Isaiah said ( 53:5 ) "By his stripes we are healed." Yet we can work toward our wounds being a source of healing for us and others in this way... let me end with one of my favorite stories of the Wounds of St Francis.
The Friars would have to change the bandages that wrapped Francis' stigmata. Instead of disposing of them, they would drop them in buckets of water to feed the sick people and animals and all the "two legged and four legged" (as Native peoples say) creatures would get well.
My intention for this icon was/is that gazing on the Innocent One Wounded By and For Us, would bring about such love for him that we would begin to try and heal one another, not by hiding our wounds, but by using them to see and understand as many forms of human suffering that God wills to show us.
With love and continual gratitude to you dear Sister,
Fr Bill
27 April 2017

The Risen Christ Appears to His Mother

April 15th, 2017

The Risen Christ Appears to His Mother

We all see Jesus differently, and my image of Jesus was forever and dramatically changed at age 19 when Fr John J Walsh, SJ showed us in the Jesuit Novitiate in Florissant, Missouri, Piero Pasolini’s black and white film made in 1964 : The Gospel According to St Matthew. Before the film was released, the churches were poised and ready to condemn it, as Pasolini was well known to be a gay man with communist leanings. Yet when it finally came out, most churches realized no one had ever made such a stark and beautiful film about Christ and the Catholic Church gave it their annual film award. Like many masterpieces of the past, in art, music and film it’s difficult to re-create the impact this film had on everyone. Pasolini filmed it in the poor hill towns of Italy. It’s as far from a Hollywood Jesus or film about a Him, as you can possibly get. The soundtrack is likewise unique in its use of Bach, the African Mass, Missa Luba, and the Black American spiritual, “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child.” I could write a very long time on the impact this one work of art still has on me. But it’s mainly Jesus, played by the only Spaniard in the film, Enrique Irazoqui, that changed me , turned me upside down, inside n’ out and made my love for Jesus burst into flame and grow immensely. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit working through an artist who is empty enough to be used by God.
I’ll just mention two of the film’s unforgettable scenes : one is the Child Jesus running on a beach-like landscape in Egypt, into the arms of the waiting Joseph while Mary looks on with deep love, at a distance. Another is Jesus kneeling in prayer with his head partially covered by a dark mantle, in which your own soul feels and copies His prayer just by watching. I can still see and feel these scenes in my heart and soul.
Although the Gospels are silent about this, St Teresa of Avila and St Ignatius Loyola (out of many, many of church mystics) could not but help imagine that the Risen Lord would appear first of all to His waiting Mother.
Many paintings show a triumphant, even muscular, Risen Lord. And icons generally show Him actively breaking down the gates of death or Hades, trampling the devil, and grabbing the wrists of Adam and Eve - then freeing all the Old Testament saints within.
At the heart of many of the recent Marian Apparitions is a prophecy that the church will undergo death and resurrection, (and then a New Pentecost) to be conformed to its Savior, the Lamb of God. During this Lent and Easter we cannot help but contemplate the staggering new pageant of innocent victims across the world, who in their deaths join the immense Retinue of the Lamb, portrayed in the Apocalypse (book of Revelation). For this reason, I chose to turn for inspiration concerning a Risen Jesus, to one of many of Rogier van der Weyden’s masterpieces, of a “still shaking, visibly vulnerable” Risen Christ appearing to his Mother.

A blessed Joyfilled Easter!
Fr Bill McNichols

Stations of the Cross

April 7th, 2017

STATIONS OF THE CROSS
The Stations of the Cross of a Person With AIDS, written and illustrated by William Hart
McNichols. This piece was composed in 1989 when there was little in the way of treatment for those
with AIDS. Although treatment has become wonderfully more effective AIDS continues to be a life
threatening disease of even greater global consequence than it was when these prayers were written.

Dedication
These Stations are dedicated to three women
who walk courageously, faithfully, and lovingly,
beside those living and dying with AIDS...
Cissy Therese Grace
Louise Hay
Sister Patrice Murphy
Copyright © 1989 by William Hart McNichols
All Rights Reserved
Electronically Republished with the Permission of the Author

Foreword
Father McNichols has accompanied many an AIDS sufferer on the journey towards death. He has
participated as a friend in that journey and has been powerfully transformed by it.
In this short work he conveys to us, in the imagery and symbol of the stations of the Cross, the insight his
experiences have given him into the way persons with AIDS share in the sufferings of Christ. He enables his
readers to stand, as it were, at the foot of the bed just as the loyal disciples once stood at the foot of the cross
on Calvary.
I am happy to commend this work. May it be fruitful in stirring up understanding and compassion for those
affected by AIDS. May it spur us all to be with these suffering brothers and sisters as they journey toward
the Lord.
Raymond C Hunthausen
Archbishop of Seattle

Introduction
A few years ago I was asked to speak to a religious community of men about the work I had been doing with
people with AIDS.
We talked casually, back and forth, for a long time. Then one of the men decided to zero in. He asked me if I
ever saw Christ on the Cross in any of the people suffering. The question startled me because I had brought
with me a graphic depiction of an AIDS Crucifixion I had drawn during the previous Lent, and I had already
shown it to the group. Then the man began to get to his real question. What he wanted to know was how the
work had affected me personally. I answered quickly that I did not envision myself on the Cross because of
the ministry, but that I was more in the position of Mary or the beloved John standing near the one on the
Cross. He was not satisfied and persisted with, “But have you ever wondered what you are doing there? Why
has God brought you so close to the Cross?” I mumbled something coherent, as I remember now, but felt
more like a whole well of past sorrow was about to erupt. I saw vision after vision of people I had gotten to
know and lovespent so much time with. I saw again their suffering for innumerable reasons. I saw their
abandonment at times, and I left that evening with the question reverberating inside of me.
I, like many Christians of all persuasions, have been taught by the mystics and the saints that to know Jesus
one must ask to be near him in his suffering. When Julian of Norwich actually begged for this experience,
she was given a most extraordinary spiritual revelation from a vision of Christ Crucified which has fed
people for centuries. And of course there is Francis of Assisi who all but became Christ Crucified near the
end of his life when he was wounded with the stigmata.
Meditations on The Way of the Cross were originally made popular by the Franciscan mysticism which
spread like a brush fire after Francis’ death. I draw from this ancient prayer to try to uncover a part of the
spirituality of persons with AIDS. I seek to look deeper into what already can be seen, to answer why God
has called us to this profound gift of ministry to people with AIDS.
William Hart McNichols

Acknowledgements
The Stations of the Cross of a Person with AIDS is produced
with special thanks to:
Ms. Judy Vitzhum
Father Ward Oakshott
Father Thomas Allsopp
Archbishop Raymond G. Hunthausen

FIRST STATION
Jesus is condemned to death
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
The sky falls.
Robert goes to his doctor with some frightening symptoms. He has a persistent chest cough that will not go
away, and he has swollen glands all over his body. He has never taken the HIV antibody test to determine
whether he might be positive for the AIDS virus, but now, with all the rumors he has heard, and these
symptoms, he decides to have the test done.
In a few weeks the results are back, and his suspicions are confirmed; he has the virus inside of him. Robert
leaves the doctor’s office in a daze. He is in a kind of shock, and sees no one in the crowds of people on the
streets. By the time he finds his way to the subway, all the color has drained out of his face. His thoughts are
penetrating into the impossible; he is speechless.
Prayer
Jesus,
I am condemned to sickness.
I am condemned by my lack of love,
by my insatiable desires, by the
drugs I use to numb the emptiness and
pain, and I am condemned at times by
my own self-righteousness. Help me
Lord, to follow this way of the cross.
Amen.

SECOND STATION
Jesus is made to carry his cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert’s mind races on. Things are not that bad, he cautions himself... didn’t he just hear somewhere that only
30 percent of the people who are HIV positive actually come down with full blown AIDS?
He will conquer this thing! He will get the best doctors and all the best help available. And there will be new
drugs! The scientists will come up with a cure soon... they have to. His attitude is the key. He must keep his
attitude positive. The subway door slides open and he leaps to his feet. His energy floods back and he is
almost running now, to his apartment. His color is flushed, and he feels a flicker of joy beginning to bum again
inside. He buys a. newspaper at the comer food market and decides, inside himself, that he can and will deal
with this alone.
Prayer
Jesus,
I see now
the actual shape and
weight of my cross. Lord,
send me your strength to
bear it.
Amen.

THIRD STATION
Jesus falls the first time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert walks into his apartment alone. At one time he lived there with another young man around his same
age, named Mark. Mark left two years ago for Europe, and now Robert is alone. He opens the newspaper.
There is a brief article on AIDS at the bottom of the third page. It states bluntly that medical professionals
used to think that only 30 to 40 percent of those infected by the AIDS virus ever come down with the actual
disease. Then they began to say 50 percent. Now they fear it is higher... much higher. Robert thinks his heart
will stop. Fear begins once more to seep into his whole being. He feels cold and dark. For awhile he cannot
move. He cannot call his family. Though they live not far away, they do not really know him. He cannot go
to church; he knows they have negative feelings toward Persons with AIDS. And he absolutely cannot tell
anyone at work; it could mean the loss of his job. He is afraid to tell his friends; there would be too much
unwanted attention, and he couldn’t bear being smothered right now. He must come to grips with this alone.
The icy fear covers him again, and he thinks he may vomit. He lies down on the floor to try to relax. His
heart is pounding so loud he thinks he can hear it. Robert calls in sick the next day, and in fact stays home
from work the next three days and drinks himself into a stupor.
Prayer
Jesus,
I am falling, falling, falling.
Help me now in this up-hill climb.
Send me living angels to help me
find my way and lift this cross.
Amen.

FOURTH STATION
Jesus meets his mother
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert remains isolated for three days. Finally, his mother gets through, calling from the family home. She
is frantic. Robert has not been answering his phone in the apartment. He has not been at work. No one has
heard from him. Is he all right? Is something wrong? Robert mutters something, but it is too hard to speak.
He’s beginning to choke up at the sound of his mother’s voice and he feels like a lonely little child again. She
begs him to come home - just for supper. He reluctantly agrees to a weekend night.
Saturday comes, and in the late afternoon Robert is on the subway- again in an enclosed world. He sees the
people now but they seem so distant and unreal. They are the nonchalant, they are the carefree... the living.
They cannot know what he feels... what he carries. He feels poisoned, unclean, leprous, untouchable. His
eyes burn from trying to hold back the rage and the tears.
Robert winces as his parents embrace him. The evening seems endless, until at last he decides he must say
something. He slowly unravels the story of his visits to the doctor. The fact that he has the HIV virus means
he could develop AIDS-related infections. His parents gape in disbelief. They pour out their doubt. He must
be wrong. He must get another doctor; the city doctors are too busy; they’re unreliable; they have him mixed
up with someone else. How could he have gotten it anyway? Is he taking drugs? The other alternative is
impossible. Religions are clear about “those people” - and no one in their family could be one of “them”...
could he?
Robert manages to calm them down. He doesn’t want to try to explain too much at once. He’s tired and just
wants to leave, but he thinks his heart will break as his mother dissolves into tears and hugs him good-bye.
Prayer
Mary,
my mother, our mother, your son
is still walking, staggering,
exhausted and bleeding. Meet him
with your love along the way.
Amen.

FIFTH STATION
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Another nearly sleepless night, until around 4 a.m. Robert falls asleep and into a dream. In the dream he sees a
little Boy standing near a large barren cross planted in a pool of water encircled by green stones which seem to
have lights inside them. The Boy motions to Robert to come and help him transplant the cross. As Robert draws
near and tries to lift the cross, it turns to solid metal. It is unbearably heavy, and too cold and sharp-edged to
touch. Robert looks dismayed and searchingly at the little Boy. The Boy takes Robert’s left hand and places it at
the center of the cross, and places his own little palm onto the side of Robert’s face. Robert feels weak and
warm. He closes his eyes and feels that he is falling through the sky, but without fear. When he opens his eyes
again the Boy is gone and the cross is small and weightless and filled with light, and Robert is holding it in his
hands.
He comes out of the dream startled, looking for the light, and for the world of the dream. Suddenly he
realizes he has overslept! He dresses fast, but there is a strange peace, a lingering of the feeling of the
dream. He is rushing, but cannot seem to make himself worry. At this thought he laughs out loud.
Outside he grabs a coffee and the newspaper and descends into the subway. Before his stop he reads a
section on health and a feature article on GMHC (Gay Men’s Health Crisis), which has been established to
help persons with AIDS, ARC and the “worried well.” Robert calls the number listed, secretly from work,
and asks to speak to a counselor. A man named Diego answers, and offers to see Robert that day after work.
Diego is a radiantly confident man. He seems indomitable, and yet his warmth opens up something in
Robert. They sit down, and Diego lets Robert speak. Somehow, just being able to tell the story to someone
who can receive it is a great relief, and Robert feels light and hopeful. He leaves with a wealth of
information. He has the names of doctors, nutritionists, social workers, a list of support groups for men and
women, and healers of all denominations. He is given the names of books on holistic health, creative
visualization, and the name of a woman who writes books and makes tapes especially for people with
AIDS. Robert hugs Diego good-bye. He finds himself crying quietly as he leaves with a new sense of joy.
Prayer
Jesus,
Thank you for the men who help me
to bear my cross. Thank you for those
with the courage to step out of the
crowd.
Amen.

SIXTH STATION
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert rushes out to find the books. He can’t believe there are so many books on healing and health! Why
didn’t he know all this before? He finds the tape that he was told about, produced by a woman named Louise
Hay, and a book by another woman on creative visualization. When he gets home, Diego calls. Knowing
Robert is Catholic, he has made contact with a Sister Patrice, who works in the Supportive Care Program of
a Catholic hospital. He asks if Robert would like a volunteer from the program, someone to talk with. Robert
hesitates. What kind of volunteer... what will they do to him? Diego assures him of his trust in Sister Patrice.
He gives Robert the number of a woman named Cissy and leaves it up to him to call. Robert calls. She
seems nice on the phone. They set up a time to meet in a week.
That night, and for the rest of the week, Robert listens to the tape. As he listens, he begins to feel he has
never heard so much love and compassion from one person. The tape speaks of love, of God, of forgiveness
of self and others, and healing... healing... healing. She helps him think deeply about the negativity in his
life, the prejudice he has experienced... the tremendous anger and holding of frustration as a result. His spirit
is quiet as he listens. There are also moments of great humor, poignant sorrow, and even times he finds he
cannot connect with her message at all. But over all he is grateful. He falls asleep thanking God for Louise
Hay and her words of healing love.
At the end of the week Cissy comes. She listens, and they talk for hours. She is small and simple. She is a
recovering alcoholic who has struggled herself, and knows the cross and suffering intimately. Her mere
presence pours out love to Robert, and he feels, somehow, the presence of God. She asks hesitantly if she
might pray with him. He agrees instantly and relaxes back in a big armchair. Cissy holds his hand, and
places her other hand on his head. She crosses his palms and forehead with simple blessed oil, and prays
spontaneously for his healing of body, spirit, and emotions. Robert falls into a deep sleep and doesn’t hear
her leave. He dreams that a woman has just washed his face, and instead of the dirt and the shame he feels
on the outside, on the towel is a picture of his inside... and it looks very much like Christ.
Prayer
Jesus,
Thank you for the women who
show me your face. Thank you
for all those women who gave us
birth, who taught us, disciplined us,
loved us-- washed us inside and out...
Send them your comfort.
Amen.

SEVENTH STATION
Jesus falls the second time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Listening to the Louise Hay tape, Robert begins to see what it must be like to have some respect for himself.
Growing inside are the beginnings of self love, and a sense of the spiritual he has always heard about, but
never dreamed was available to him. He also meets with a support group once a week, and by listening and
speaking, he feels a sense of community for the first time. Here is a place he can speak the truth without fear.
The thought crosses his mind that this is what it must be like for some Christians who speak about
community. Cissy comes regularly to visit, prays with him, brings him spiritual books, gifts, and a beautiful
turquoise blanket to wrap around himself when he prays. The blanket vaguely calls up an image of the
Blessed Mother he has seen as a child, and he feels a kind of presence of Mother Mary surrounding him when
he prays. He thinks now that he has not felt so much love since Mark left for Europe.
Without warning, there are new symptoms-diarrhea and continual night sweats. Three or four times a night he
must get out of bed and change all the sheets and his night clothes. Everything is soaked all the way through.
He is badly shaken now by fear, and sits up one night trying to face the fact that the HIV infection is leading
to serious, maybe life-threatening illness. Then one evening, going up the stairs to his apartment, Robert is
gripped - jolted by a pain in his chest. He can hardly make it into his apartment. He is gasping for breath as he
calls Diego, who immediately calls an ambulance.
Prayer
Jesus,
I am face down again. I fear
the agony ahead - death terrifies me.
I am now the laughing-stock of everyone...
People run from me. Hurry to help me
Lord, hurry.
Amen.

EIGHTH STATION
The women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert is rushed to a hospital. Hour after hour he writhes in pain in a corner of the emergency room. After
what seems an eternity, he is taken to a room. A day later he is given the diagnosis of PCP, pneumocystis
carinii pneumonia. He knows this means that he now has AIDS. His mind goes blank - partly in horror, partly
in relief. He is given much medication for the pneumonia, to clear the infection in his lungs, and he is given
something to help him sleep. He overhears that if the infection becomes worse and the struggle to breathe
becomes critical, he will have to go on a respirator. He falls asleep, but this time there are no dreams - only
darkness.
The medication seems to work, but the days of pain and fear drag on. Robert begs, in prayer, for some sign of
God’s love.
One afternoon a man stands in the doorway wearing plastic gloves, a hospital gown and mask. He tells Robert
he is a minister, and gives his name.
His voice is so muffled by the mask that Robert cannot understand him, so he asks him to please speak up.
The man declares that Robert is a homosexual, and that the Bible condemns such people. He quotes passages
about dogs, perverts, and sodomites. He promises Robert will not enter the Kingdom of God. He demands that
Robert repent, yet he will not come past the doorway. Robert declines the offer, and the man storms out.
Robert hears him shouting down the hall about lust and fornication. For the next four days, the man returns
and continues the assault, hurling passages on sexuality and condemnation. At the end, he calls out in a loud
voice about demonic possession, waving his arms toward Robert’s bed. Robert feels he has fallen into a
nightmare which might possibly be worse than all the physical pain he has already endured. He forbids the
man to come again, and regains some sense of peace.
When he is strong enough, he is moved to the downtown hospital. Soon there is a knock on his door. A woman
steps inside and announces herself as Sister Patrice of the Supportive Care (hospice) Program. She speaks of a
care that is physical, spiritual, emotional and financial. She is so warm and loving, Robert thinks this must be
the angel he prayed for. She talks about the love of God, and he can’t quite contain it all, but she touches his
hand upon leaving and he knows.
Prayer
Jesus,
I see all those weeping around me--
They wish to help me, but also
to keep me here. Yet, it seems you have called
me Home. Help us all to see we belong
only to you, and to be unafraid when
the time comes for each one to return
to you. Amen.

NINTH STATION
Jesus falls the third time
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
A shower of love... the hospice group seems to heal all that went before of the nightmare brush with the man
at the other hospital. The nurses are incredible; not only are they caring in a professional sense, but they also
befriend Robert. He develops a friendship with a young nurse named Daisy, of the night staff. She pushes
him to keep eating, she watches his moods and urges life when he loses hope. Sister Patrice is there often,
and makes her staff of nurses and social workers and volunteers available. He asks her one day if there is a
priest he could talk with. She laughs heartily and says “yes!” That afternoon Father Daniel comes by. He is a
poet, writer and a man who has poured out his life in the cause of world peace. He is somewhere in his
sixties, Robert guesses. Robert thinks he has never seen such wisdom and lines of suffering in one face
before. They talk for some time. Robert pours out his life - the troubles, confusion... the blessings of family
and friends. At the end of the story, he confesses and asks forgiveness for those who have hurt him and those
he has hurt.
Father Daniel gives him absolution and the sacrament of the sick. That night a eucharistic minister brings
him communion.
The next day he is filled again with hope. The doctor notices Robert’s uplifted spirits and cannot help but feel
it himself. He does a routine examination and suddenly stops. The look on his face falls, and his mouth
closes. He notices a small purple spot on the back of Robert’s leg and one on the side of his right arm.
Prayer
Jesus,
I cannot move. The sickness, the fear,
have paralyzed me. Hope is now but a
memory... “By day I cry out and at night
I clamor in your presence.” Amen.

TENTH STATION
Jesus is stripped of his garments
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
The doctor explains that Robert has a form of cancer, KS, Kaposi’s Sarcoma. Throughout the next few weeks
there are other complications. He is given drugs which do not agree with him, and one which causes terrible
hallucinations. The room seems to spin round about and he sees specters and ghastly images darting in and out
of the room. He screams aloud, but no one is able to calm him, no one is able to convince him that there’s
nothing there.
Months later as the KS progresses, Robert begins chemotherapy. He becomes nauseous at times, and loses his
hair. He can hardly eat and has to be fed intravenously. The staff becomes more attentive. His friends are there
too. Flowers fill the room. But there is no comfort. He tries to pray but cannot find the peace and the hope
anymore. He feels stripped of everything.
Prayer
Jesus,
The stripping has begun... my body,
my pride, my family, my friends,
this earth, these skies, the trees,
the seasons and holidays -I will
never see any of this again.
Amen.

ELEVENTH STATION
Jesus is nailed to the cross
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
One day Robert wakes to find a blank spot in one eye. He panics and calls for the doctor. More blood is taken,
examination after examination ensues, and he is diagnosed further with CMV, cytomegalovirus. The
chemotherapy is working on the lesions on the exterior of his body, but the doctor has discovered there are
lesions now internally, and Robert knows inside himself that he is dying.
A week later he calls for Father Daniel again and asks him to help him plan his funeral. He wants that reading he
once heard about the boy who died and was healed by the elderly prophet who reclined atop the boy and
breathed divine life back into him. And he asks to have the beatitudes for the Gospel reading. He and Father
Daniel read together...
Blessed are the poor in spirit...
Blessed are the sorrowful...
Blessed are the gentle...
Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for holiness...
Blessed are the merciful...
Blessed are the pure in heart...
Blessed are the peacemakers...
Blessed are they who are persecuted for justice...
And Blessed are you when they revile you, and speak every evil against you, lying because of me...
Prayer
Jesus,
The ring of the hammer is terrifying,
my head and heart are pounding--
I see nothing but red. All my bones
are numbered, and for my possessions
they have cast lots. Amen.

TWELFTH STATION
Jesus is raised upon the cross and dies
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have redeemed the world.
One month later Robert undergoes another severe attack of pneumonia. This time he must be put on a
respirator. For three days he struggles to breathe, and finally he is given a paralyzing drug to help him stop
fighting the machine. He can hear everything and everyone around him, but he cannot move. Nurses and
friends mop the sweat off his body and forehead. His mouth is cracked and bleeding. On the seventh day he
dies. But something strange happens. Two people, a man and a woman, appear at the foot of the bed. The
woman disconnects all the tubes and apparatus binding him and the man lifts him from the bed and carries him
out the door of the room, through a dark passage and into a glowing white light. The light gradually turns a
radiant gold. Robert realizes he is no longer in his body, and that he is approaching the throne of God and a
multitude of spiritual beings. God speaks to the man who carried Robert and asks him to lay “the child” down
at His feet. God summons the heavenly beings to rise and extend their hands over Robert and to send their
healing love to him. Then God asks the man to place Robert in the arms of Mary. She is wrapped in the
familiar turquoise blanket and holds him most tenderly. She passes him gently to the Archangel Michael,
Michael hands him to the Archangel Gabriel, Gabriel gives him to the Archangel Raphael, Raphael gives him
to Aloysius Gonzaga, Aloysius gives him to the little Therese, Therese gives him to Catherine of Siena,
Catherine gives him to Francis of Assisi. Robert cannot “see” all these spirits distinctly; he rather feels who
they are, and marvels at how each one had been a guide at one time or other, when he was on earth. Then
something happens with Francis. Robert feels he is grieved and frowning. Robert asks him what is the matter,
and Francis laments that there is someone Robert has yet to forgive. “Who?” Robert begs. And Francis says,
“Yourself.”
God calls the carrier who brought Robert and has been silent at the throne, to again lift Robert into his arms.
“He has been healed,” God says, “Take him back.” The man hesitates and then says to God, “But there are
many more.” “Then bring them, too,” God answers.
Prayer
God my Father,
Where are you now?
You who formed me, you who
promised me the kingdom?
I see nothing now but a
dark wall rising to the stars.
“Eli, Eli, Eli lama sabacthani!” Amen.

THIRTEENTH STATION
Jesus is taken down from the cross
and placed in the arms of his mother
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
Robert is back in the intensive care unit. He is still attached to the respirator. He panics. He is healed, but no
one knows! Why don’t they see? Why don’t they unhook him? The next day the doctor notices an incredible
improvement in his breathing; such a marked change that Robert is taken off the respirator. Robert believes
he has been completely physically cured. Three days later he is sitting up in a chair in a regular hospital
room. The staff is awed. Robert tells a friend the story of his having died and come back. Breathlessly he
gasps out the entire story of God and the heavenly kingdom of spiritual beings. He is terribly excited and
promises to write the whole story down for everyone who is suffering. He is joyful and peaceful and is
making plans to go back to work, and to work in a healing capacity. One month later, Robert has another
attack of pneumonia, and calmly refuses to go on the respirator... that night he dies in his mother’s arms.
Prayer
God our Mother,
My mother was bleeding and in agony
when I came into the world. May she
hold me now, as 1 pass into the womb of
the dark tunnel - to pass into the
Light of your presence.
Amen.

FOURTEENTH STATION
Jesus is laid in the sepulcher
V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.
R. Because by your holy cross,
you have
redeemed the world.
There are true stories of families, friends and lovers carrying the bodies of their loved ones in the trunks of
their cars in plastic garbage bags, trying to find a funeral home to take the dead. It will probably be a while
before the full truth of these stories becomes public. Imagine the grief and frustration of not being able to bury
someone you love. Most relatives and friends of people who have died of AIDS cannot even, or dare not even,
speak of the circumstances surrounding the sickness and death. These people grieve in solitude and are often
plagued by a sense of fear and shame. The isolation of their suffering is also part of the disease.
But there are funeral homes which have been gracious and comforting. One in particular that has taken people
who have died of AIDS - even from the beginning is Reddens Funeral on West 14th Street in Manhattan... they
are the Josephs of Arimathea in our Way of the Cross.
Robert is taken to Reddens, and from there, to the Capuchin church of St. John the Baptist for the funeral. As
Father Daniel is away, another friend of Robert’s celebrates the mass and gives the eulogy. He is a Capuchin
friar, Father Sigmund, and he speaks with great respect for Robert and his life. Robert had made many visits to
this church during the time of his spiritual reawakening, and found much comfort from the friar. Father
Sigmund speaks of the profound effect Robert has had on his own life. He speaks of Robert’s youth and of his
extraordinary hospital experience of the unconditional love of God. Robert’s friends and family weep with a
sense of deep loss, and yet feel a sense of wonder at all that has happened. The mass ends with the singing of
“May the Angels Take You into Paradise.” The priest and family and friends process out with the casket
covered in white, and the choir sings the final hymn, Bach’s devotional classic...
“Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring.”
Prayer
Jesus,
There is a curious lifting of my
spirit. l see now all my family
and friends mourning over my body,
yet I am not there. l am flying --
no, travelling -- through some darkness,
yet there is no fear along the way.
Amen.

FIFTEENTH STATION
Jesus rises from the dead
V. Exult all creation around God’s throne!
Rejoice O earth in shining splendor, radiant
is the brightness of your King!
Christ has conquered death! Glory fills you!
Darkness vanishes forever!
R. Jesus Christ is risen!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Robert is one of thousands of men, women, and children who have died of AIDS in the United States and
Europe. In Africa, where there is a twenty-five year history of AIDS, whole villages have been decimated.
Millions will die ...millions.
Robert’s is but one story. There are similar stories, and there are stories which are very different in the
specifics and details. But they all share the suffering from the disease and the suffering from their own
cultures and religions. Yet there are many signs of hope. Christ promised his disciples we would meet him
in the simple, the poor and the outcast. The miracle of healing for those called to this work, is that they
actually meet Christ and are converted themselves to a greater love and life in solidarity with the blessed
poor.
When Francis of Assisi was twenty five, and on his passionate journey towards light and conversion, he
was inspired one day to leap off his horse and to embrace and kiss a leper passing by on the road. Francis
was desperate for conversion and was coaxed by the Spirit into touching the leper, who healed Francis in
was desperate for conversion and was coaxed by the Spirit into touching the leper, who healed Francis in
return.
And so let us end with words of hope - words of promise for all who are searching for the royal house of
the Son of David, for all those hungering for God, for conversion, for new life... for vocation:
“Fear not little flock;
for it has pleased your Father
to give you
the kingdom.”
Prayer
My Lord and my God,
Words cannot express what
awaits us. l have seen my life
in succession, in a vast array
of images. St. John of the Cross’
prophecy is true:
“In the evening of life
you will be judged
by love.”
Amen.

Our new Patron of Victims of Slave Trafficking- For the feast of St Patrick of Ireland

March 27th, 2017

Our new Patron of Victims of Slave Trafficking
For the feast of St Patrick of Ireland

" Unfortunately, the great Christian mystics have been generally presented as models of perfection or monuments of orthodoxy - sometimes, too, as inhumanly joyless and ascetical . Yet they were, above all else, men and women of feeling, always vulnerable, at times perhaps even insecure and uncertain of the way ahead. For all that, they shine with a special divine likeness and a special human radiance ...
This little book is at once a study of a fifth -century text and a portrait of the writer of this text, who names himself as Patricius, the son of one Calpornius, a Christian Deacon ( whose father was a Priest ) and a Roman decurio or alderman ...
The "Confession" is a letter in defense of his life-work, and it was preceded by a shorter letter written to the followers of a local British leader named Coroticus, who had taken prisoner many of Patrick's converts and proposed to sell them into slavery, as Patrick himself had been kidnapped and sold as a boy of sixteen ...
There are two sources of light in the world of Patrick... Holy Scripture and his own dreams.
Here I want to look at the dreams.
The "Confession is a short document ...yet it contains seven distinct dream narratives ... They are various and striking, and so vividly told that they, more than the recital of events , give liveliness and freshness to the narrative. "

Aristocracy of Soul : Patrick of Ireland
By Noel Dermot O' Donoghue 1987

"Here comes (Joseph) this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits ; then we shall say that a wild beast devoured him, and we shall see what becomes of his dreams."
Genesis 37: 19

Oh I wish I had an icon of St Patrick to show you but I've never had a commission to paint him ; almost twice I had one, but the people never actually decided. So I'm showing you two things ; my favorite book on St Patrick and an icon I painted (wrote) for my dear Irish Priest friend Fr Patrick 0' Brien. It is Our Lady of the Sign.
What is the "sign" ?
It comes from this passage in Isaiah 7: 10 - 15
"Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz,' Ask a sign from the Lord your God : let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. ' But Ahaz said, ' I will not put the Lord to the test. ' And He said, ' Hear then O House of David ! Is it too little for you to weary men , that you weary God also ? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold a young maiden shall conceive and bear a son , and you shall call his name Emmanuel ... ' "
Some "Irish food " for thought on this feast :

1) Emmanuel the Sign , is God with us ... now. No matter how terrorized we are by the signs of today's or tomorrow 's news - be it ferocious weather or political mayhem, or personal depression and darkness, Emmanuel is with us.
2) Dreams are sometimes very important . Joseph of the "Many Colored Garment " tells us this with his life , in the book of Genesis. So does the life of the husband of the Blessed Mother, St Joseph ...
And St Patrick as well, and his seven dreams, but also, his experience as a young boy being kidnapped, St Bakhita too survived this terror; both became Christ figures of Forgiveness. (remember too Joseph forgiving his brothers in Egypt)
3) There are 20 million people enslaved today and human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar a year industry.

St Patrick intercede for us to live (as you did) in God's dream for us , and please, we beg you, ask Our Lord and Our Lady of The Sign, to free all those men
, women, and children enslaved (in any way) this very month and day of your feast.

17 March 2017
Fr Bill McNichols

The Sire Of Sorrow- Jobs Sad Song

March 8th, 2017

"With all this, Job did not offend, nor did he put blame on God
...My heart is bursting within my breast .."
Job 1:22 and 19:27

The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)

(Antagonists)
Man is the sire of sorrow
(Job)
I've lost all taste for life
I'm all complaints
Tell me why do you starve the faithful?
Why do you crucify the saints?
And you let the wicked prosper
You let their children frisk like deer,
And my loves are dead or dying, or they don't come near.
(Antagonists)
We don't despise your chastening
God is correcting you
(Job)
Oh and look who comes to counsel my deep distress,
All these pompous physicians
What carelessness!

Joni Mitchell (from Turbulent Indigo, 1994)

"The Book of Job is in several ways the most mysterious book of the Hebrew Bible. Formally, as a sustained debate in poetry, it resembles no other text in the canon...
The poet, having given Job such vividly powerful language for the articulation of his outrage and his anguish, now fashions still greater poetry for God... Poetry of such virtuosity and power, dependent as it must be on the expressive force that the original words and their ordering, is bound to pale in translation....
From Chapter 42 translated by Robert Alter:
"And it happened after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite : 'My wrath has flared against you and your two companions because you have not spoken rightly of Me as did My servant Job. And now take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt-offering for yourselves, and Job My servant will pray on your behalf. To him only shall I show favor...' "

The Wisdom Books : A New Translation With Commentary by Robert Alter

The great artist and composer, Joni Mitchell , after a life of many physical ailments from polio, as a nine year old child, to morgellons disease, to a brain aneurism last year, distilled the 42 chapters of Job into a seven minute brilliant song.
Martin Pope's magisterial commentary on The Book of Job is 405 pages. Daniel Berrigan's rather recent ( Year 2000 ), written "in his own blood" commentary is 368 pages. Stephen Mitchell has a fairly new poetic translation, Rabbi Harold Kushner has written a comforting, extremely helpful book on Job, "The Book of Job : When Bad Things Happen to a Good Person." But for reasons I'll mention soon, my favorite is by Gustavo Gutierrez, "On Job:God Talk And The Suffering of the Innocent."
I don't think it could have been possible to be a friend and chaplain in the height of the AIDS pandemic in the United States (around the years 83-93) without turning to, contemplating and living inside, The Book of Job. I've tried to write about some of the experiences in "The Stations of the Cross of A Person With AIDS."
We all have times of great, extended physical, emotional and spiritual suffering.
Not only did Job lose a child, which is a terrible life -time wound for any parent, he lost ten children. Even the saints, such as San Isidro and his wife Santa Maria lost a child, and reading Mirjana Soldo's autobiography "My Heart Will Triumph" you see that having frequent apparitions of the Blessed Mother does not mean a lack of suffering will come to you; rather the "world " like Job's friends, tends to inflict more suffering the closer one is to God. Think of the great Carmelites, John of the Cross, Teresa, Therese, Titus Brandsma and Edith Stein. Recently I watched a documentary on the violence and racial suffering of Jackie Robinson, and "Loving" the movie about the interracial marriage of Richard and Mildred Loving in 1958, the tv series, "When We Rise", on Gay and Lesbian lives and response to the AIDS pandemic , and Andrew Garfield's brilliant portrayal of God's suffering servant, Desmond Doss in the film Hacksaw Ridge. Just the tip of the iceberg of those prophets ahead of their time, men and women, like Hildegard, Julian, and our own relatives and people we all look to for guidance - how do you live through such intense suffering without losing faith?
During the time I was a chaplain at St Vincent's Hospice in NYC I often heard from the patients that their greatest suffering was not as much the physical but the emotional and spiritual suffering of abandonment. This has been true ever since, with people recovering from cancer or any major disease, heart failure etc. The reason I am so fond of Gustavo Gutierrez 'book on Job is that he says the same thing about Job's suffering. That Job's deepest pain was feeling abandoned by God, in the same way Jesus felt during his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane until his last breaths quoting Psalm 22.
When God finally appears to Job in chapters 38-42, just the appearance is tremendously healing. If I could quote Gutierrez entire book, I would because it's impossible to sum up in a few words such deep theology, born of immense suffering. But let's end with a few of Gutierrez 'profound words which may come to you as an invitation to read his whole book:
"Perhaps those who live, and try to express, their faith and hope amid unjust suffering will some day have to say humbly with Job, 'I spoke without understanding marvels that are beyond my grasp, 'and put aside their harsh language. Yet who knows but that the Lord may tell them, to the surprise of some:
'You have spoken correctly about me. ' "

Fr Bill McNichols : Holy Prophet Job
March 2017

Our Lords message to Lady Julian of Norwich

February 26th, 2017

"...And All Shall Be Well. "
Our Lord's message to Lady Julian of Norwich
(Julian's Showings as a beginning to this Lent of 2017)

I would guess to some, if not many, Julian might seem an odd choice to begin Lent. She is so hopeful and joyous, in this time of great anxiety and fear, how can Julian speak to our present day? What did she know of great suffering and anxiety?
In 1974 I was just 24 years old and teaching art and theology at Regis High School in Denver, living in a small Jesuit Community only a stones throw away, up a small hill, to the high school itself. The house just happened to be on Julian Street. I received a gift of a book from my mentor Fr John J. Walsh, SJ about the "Revelations of Divine Love" to a medieval Anchoress named Lady Julian of Norwich. What I remember most about the letter he sent with the book, is he considered Julian the most joyful and hopeful of all the Christian Mystics. After reading the book I sent it to my dear friend Fr Jim Janda, SJ and so began a series of inspired events that would lead J Janda to begin to research and immerse himself in the writings of Lady Julian. He had seen the play about the New England poet Emily Dickinson, with Julie Harris as the enigmatic, reclusive Emily, called "The Belle of Amherst" and was intent on writing a one woman play about Julian.
Since that time of my youth, I have returned to Julian consistently, and in January of 2003 taught a one semester course in Women's Studies at the University of New Mexico - Taos on the short text in the original Middle English, of Julian's Revelations or "Showings". In 1978 Paulist Press published its first book on a series of Christian Spirituality and chose a new translation of Julian's Showings. I think it was also the arrival of Julian's theology into the mainstream culture. Since 1978 there have been countless translations and books about Julian, I am partial to my friend Mirabai Starr's recent translation, as a graceful and beneficial beginning to Julian's theology (Hampton Roads Publishing Company). This edition also has a beautiful,and most unusual painting on the cover of Julian in her anchorhold, while the busy townsfolk of Norwich walk by her one open window. From this one painting you get the idea of how Julian became such an important, comforting spiritual guide to her own city of Norwich but also to pilgrims like a contemporary, Margery Kempe who travelled to seek Lady Julian's wisdom.
Fr Walsh was right in that, I have found in Julian a steady, and loving guide to God for over 40 years. Thomas Merton was full of admiration for her, along with John Henry Newman, as the greatest of English theologians, he said "Julian is without doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices. She gets greater and greater in my eyes as I grow older... "this was a woman who lived through three outbreaks of the plague in England and knows well our human anguish and suffering. She contemplated the visions given to her by Jesus in her 3 day near death experience at age 30, until her death over four decades later. Julian was shown, in one vision, a small hazelnut in her hand, telling her this was All that was made ...
"I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought :
What can this be? I was amazed that it could last, for I thought that because of its littleness it would suddenly have fallen into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding : It lasts and always will, because God loves it ; and thus everything has being through the love of God...The first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God preserves it ...God is the Creator and the Protector and the Lover...
The mother may sometimes suffer the child to fall and to be distressed in various ways, for its own benefit, but she can never suffer any kind of peril to come to her child, because of her love. And though our earthly mother may suffer her child to perish, our heavenly Mother Jesus may never suffer us who are his children to perish, for he is almighty, all wisdom and all love, and so is none but he, blessed may he be ..."

May we find deep peace this beginning of Lent in Our Lord Jesus, with Lady Julian of Norwich as our guide.
Fr Bill McNichols
March 2017

https://www.amazon.com/Showings-Julian-Norwich-New-Translation/dp/1571746919

https://www.amazon.com/Julian-Play-Based-Life-Norwich/dp/0816426325/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1488146276&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=julian+by+jim+janda

In The Cloud of Unknowing

February 13th, 2017

In The Cloud of Unknowing

"Don't give up then, but work away at it till you have this longing. When first you begin, you find only darkness, and as it were a cloud of unknowing...."

Prescient symbolism literally fills the recorded visions of Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich. Her life of Christ begins way far back into the Hebrew Bible , with prophecies, symbols, and holy people, as the great scripture scholar G. B. Caird said in his commentary on Luke ....people agog with anticipation for the coming of the Messiah. In the Life of the Blessed Virgin (taken out of the 4 volumes of the life of Christ ) there is the true sign given to Elijah in 1 Kings 18 : 44 of one single cloud appearing in the sky, which ends a terrible drought. Catherine sees the cloud as symbolic of the Blessed Mother herself ; Mary's entrance into our world ends the drought of waiting for the Messiah.
Maybe we are all in a dark cloud at this moment? And some people in the world are suffering in every way - beyond what we can imagine. Whether you have been given the vocation to be an activist or a contemplative or both, you are probably struggling to live in a peaceful, nonviolent way at this time. I first read the anonymous medieval classic The Cloud of Unknowing in 1970 (translation of 1961) when I was still very young, and included the imagined archer and cloud in the border of my last self portrait with symbols. It's still me - trying to pierce the cloud with the arrow of as much love as I can gather inside. There are few writings as beautiful as the cloud, which I'll partially share with you now, I think this is the "right or kairos" time. And this book has been printed so often, even though the author (like the Kabbalah), says not to share it unless people are serious and ready. Ready or not ... here's an excerpt ...which may lead you to actually be ready ?
"God is ready when you are, and is waiting for you...
Lift up your heart to God with humble love:and mean God himself , and not what you get out of him ...Try to forget all created things that he ever made, and the purpose behind them, so that your thought and longing do not turn or reach out to them either in general or particular. Let them go, and pay no attention to them. It is the work of the soul that pleases God most... Moreover, the whole of mankind is wonderfully helped but what you are doing, in ways you do not understand ... But now you will ask me, 'How am I to think of God himself, and what is he? ' For with this question you have brought me into the same darkness, the same cloud of unknowing where I want you to be!...Strike that thick cloud of unknowing with the sharp arrow of longing love, and on no account whatever think of giving up."

From chapters 2 - 6
Just a further note... Carmen Acevedo Butcher who put together a great spiritual reader on Dr. St Hildegard of Bingen, has an excellent new translation of The Cloud of Unknowing. Scholars have conjectured it was written around 1370 in Middle English.
The same Middle English used by Lady Julian of Norwich to write her masterpiece of Showings ( Revelations ) of Divine Love ... which may become the source of another blog to come. And I might write on the self - portraits and what I've learned and haven't yet learned :)

Fr Bill McNichols
February 2017

Holy Passion Bearer Dorothy Stang - Martyr of the Amazon 1931 - 2005

February 3rd, 2017

�Holy Passion Bearer Dorothy Stang �

Sr. Dorothy Stang : Martyr of the Amazon
(1931 - 2005) a new Patron of Ecology....along with St Francis and St Hildegard

�I light a candle and look at Jesus on the Cross and ask for the strength to carry the suffering of the people. Don�t worry about my safety. The safety of the people is what�s important.�
Sr. Dorothy Stang

�On the morning of February 12, 2005, Sr. Dorothy Stang, an American-Born nun who had spent fifty years in Brazil, set off for a meeting of landless farmers. Along the muddy trail her way was blocked by two hired gunmen who asked whether she carried any weapon. In reply she produced her Bible and began to read the Beatitudes : Blessed are the poor in spirit...Blessed are the peacemakers. And then they shot her.
Sr. Dorothy, born in Dayton, Ohio, joined the Sisters of Norte Dame de Namur out of high school and volunteered in 1966 to work in Brazil. Eventually she was drawn to the remote regions of the Amazon and the cause of poor farmers who were exploited and robbed by rich loggers and cattle barons. She had come to see the connections between defending the rights of the poor and protecting the ecological balance of the rain forest itself.
Well into her seventies, she trudged through mud and thick forests to attend prayer services and labor meetings. Her efforts on behalf of the farmers and the imperiled rain forest marked her as an enemy by those who hired her assassins.
Her death aroused the government of Brazil and the whole world to the cause of ecology and justice for which she offered her life.�

From the February issue of : �Give Us This Day� page 157

Right after I was ordained in Denver in May of 1979 I was invited by the Sisters of the Precious Blood, who ran the school of Christ the King I attended from kindergarten through sixth grade , to say Mass for them one evening. When I got to the homily, it suddenly occurred to me that sitting before me were the very women who had given me most everything I knew (as well as my parents) of Jesus, the Blessed Mother and my love for the saints. So that was my homily, just thanking these women and telling them that without them, I would not be able to give our faith to anyone. My seventh and eight grade years were spent at St John�s School, with two great lay women teachers and the wonderful Sisters of Loretto.
This particular icon is dedicated to Sister Carolyn Wiethorn, CSJ, and all the holy - great women of our church and the many religious women I have met over the years, especially the Sisters of St Joseph in Baden, Pennsylvania. These religious women, often forgotten, demeaned, and hidden apostles of Jesus, have nourished me and so many thousands, and sometimes even saved my priesthood through their love and wise guidance.

Fr Bill McNichols
February 2017

The Conversion of St Paul - feastday January 25

January 24th, 2017

" The image of the master one glimpse and we are in love."
Zen Master Ikkyu : 1394-1481

" Oh my love for the first time in my life
My eyes are wide open
Oh my lover for the first time in my life
My eyes can see ..."
John Lennon and Yoko Ono 1971

" When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you. I'll take your part
Oh, when darkness comes and pain is all around ..."
Paul Simon 1969

The Conversion of St Paul : feastday January 25

Saul of Tarsus was absolutely sure he was right ; it seems just about everything . It is well known he was at the murder of St Stephen and the men who stoned Stephen to death , laid their garments at the feet of "a young man named Saul." Acts 7 : 54-60
Although I have written (painted) an icon of St Paul for the church named for him in Colorado Springs, I choose to show you this illustration of Jesus I did for a book called The People's Christmas by Gerald O'Collins, SJ, in 1984. Later I made it into a painting for my friend Jim Martin, SJ.
When Jesus appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus and the Light knocked him to the ground , he saw Love face to face . It literally blinded him, until he could begin the journey of shedding his certain knowledge and little by little, let the truth seep in. Now it would be not just knowledge of the mind , but also the face of Love and the overwhelming reinterpretation of everything he thought he knew. Some scholars have claimed it took him five years or so, to come into the blinding Love he had seen that day Jesus appeared to him. One of my favorite books on St Paul is by Rev. Robin Scroggs, "Paul For A New Day." It was the book that opened me to my first personal relationship to Paul while I was a theology student in Cambridge, Massachusetts from 76-79.
Conversion is of course, a continual process, a better word, is a continual deepening of love. We are not going to make it through these times without some growing conversion. Something, some ancient wisdom from countries all over the world is being told, actually shouted and screamed at us, as a very, very, young immature nation. If the recent women's marches were just in the US one could write them off as any number of words such as liberals, democrats, progressives etc. But these are world wide cities and nations of people who have been through centuries of suffering at the hands of governments or tyrannies we can't even imagine.
I myself was literally stunned and shocked to see marches in India, Antarctica, London, France, Africa, Belgrade, Melbourne, Lima, Macau, Mexico, Budapest, Georgia, Brazil, Canad, Holland , Belgium, New Zealand, Australia, Chile, Italy, Prague, Iraq, Tel Aviv, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Columbia, Finland, Guam, Thailand, Poland, Greece, Ireland, and most chilling of all...Germany. If we choose to ignore these Elders who have nothing to do with our tiny concepts of republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives ... but are our elder sisters and brothers of the World warning us, and even then ...we refuse conversion ...we do so with incurable hard hearts.
For the great American author, the one to be recognized in Europe as our first American genius, Nathaniel Hawthorne, the greatest sin was a solid cold, hardened heart. He was the descendant of the infamous Judge Hathorne of Salem.
As Psalm 95 begs us and St. Paul to ...
"If today you hear His voice ........then harden not your hearts."
How much more do we need to know, do we need to hear, than the entire ancient cultures of the world speaking to us?
St Paul who once was Saul, continue to pray us into conversion. Pray for us to see the face of life and love that we may fall in love with Jesus in the same way given to you on that day of the beginning of your conversion.

Fr Bill McNichols
January 2017

The Servant Of God Egide Van Broeckhoven, SJ

December 30th, 2016

"Egide Van Broeckhoven was the young worker-priest whose tragic death in Brussels on December 28, 1967, shocked the public. Those who knew him were aware that his work in the factory and his brutal death on the job were nothing else but the conclusion of a passionate quest for God. His life in a poor working-class neighborhood and factory always revealed his lively and friendly spirit : his joviality, his good humor and a genuine love of God and prayer beneath his rough manners and non-conformism.
The "spiritual diary" of Father Van Broeckhoven contained in this book, carefully edited from twenty-six handwritten notebooks he kept during his ten years of factory life, reveals his deep and unceasing search for God through friendship with everyone he knew. They show his lights, his desires, his most profound experiences, all based on God, as the beginning and the end of his life. The diary is at once deep and very simple. It is not sterile introspection or self-complacency. Father Van Broeckhoven was always interested in 'what God is doing in me.'
The basic intuition of the book is indicated on the entry of March 31, 1961 :
'My vocation is to teach men ( people ) the mystical depths of friendship,' and it's content is sketched out in the entry of December 29, 1963:
'Book about friendship : lived experiences, not a philosophical treatise but transparent experiences where each man can recognize his own experiences and see them clearly there until he finds God in them.'
These spiritual notes teem with insights into every aspect of Christian life and contain a living testimony to the richness and value of friendship for our times."

From the inside cover of the book :
A Friend To All Men : Diary Of A Worker Priest by
Egide Van Broeckhoven, SJ
Dimensions Books 1977

I had so many ideas for a New Year icon and message and the through the "Gentle Guiding Hand of Providence" I happened to be meeting Fr Richard Rohr, OFM for lunch today. I wanted to give him Egide's diary as a New Years gift and he brought me the gift of his new book "The Divine Dance." It turns out the Spirit was moving us both, and I believe us All, in the positive direction of embodying the love we believe is needed in 2017. Richard told me a story I'd never heard about St Andrei Rublev's icon of the Trinity; often called "the icon of icons." Richard said that they found out that the rectangle in the middle of the table/altar where the Trinity sits, had residues of glue on that very spot. This led to the thought that someone might have had a mirror glued right there so that as you look into the Trinity of love, you too are present.
I'm sure Richard explains it better in his new book but I did not want to leave 2016 without telling you that .... in the midst of the heart of the most beautiful icon of the Trinity ever created by human hands, imagine a mirror, and see your image within that Circle of Love. And last of all I leave you with one of my favorite sayings, which actually hangs next to my bathroom mirror:
"What a privilege we have been given by God to be able to spend our lives giving his love away."
Don Lessin

Fr Bill McNichols
December 30 2016
and....Happy New Year 2017!

Christ Emmanuel and Christ Emmanuel Lamb of God

December 30th, 2016

Christ Emmanuel and Christ Emmanuel Lamb of God
Today begin the O Antiphons found in the beautiful, haunting, Advent hymn:
"O Come O Come Emmanuel!"
There are two versions of this song, (I am most fond of) which are very different; one is truly stark and thus fitting for waiting in the Dark Night for the Light of the World, it is from Joan Baez 1966 Christmas album "Noel" arranged and conducted by Peter Shickele. The other by Robert Shaw Chorale and the Atlanta Symphony, I think originally recorded in the 1950's, starts off very soft, prayerful, quiet ...by the end the chorus is so full and literally begging, nearly shouting for Emmanuel to come, and us to loudly rejoice with the chorale.... It vibrates all through you, as it should. So many comments about this album say it is the best version of this hymn. When I began to paint (write) icons, my Dad used to kid me about the "homely, ugly babies "it took him awhile to warm up to the way icons present the infant and young Christ. The first one you see here was my fourth icon and I found this in a Russian Icon book my teacher, Brother Robert Lentz, OFM, gave me as a gift. I fell in love with the Buddha-like, large head of the Child which spoke to me of Holy Wisdom. And though I love this icon very much, no one has ever ordered a copy. The other icon you see here was to be a gift to my Dad , Stephen L.R. McNichols 1914-1997.
In November 1997 while Dad was in his last days I decided to copy Simon Ushakov's masterpiece of Christ Emmanuel, which because of his curly hair I titled Cordero de Dios or Lamb of God. Dad died on November 25 that year and did not get to see his icon, but I finished it, silently weeping on the Child, after his funeral . In his obituary, there are many things said about him as Governor of Colorado, which for me, do radically challenge me and all of us today, and also point to the ongoing creation of the true and only - Kingdom of God:
"He left his stamp on much of what is best about today's Colorado ... He had a lifelong commitment to the disadvantaged and distressed ... pushed much -needed new resources into the states institutions of higher education and reformed the shocking conditions that then prevailed in Colorado's mental institutions and prisons ... He combined his dedication to the underdog with the courage to stake his all on what he believed was right. Each of the other governors elected to succeed him has exceeded his longevity in office; none has exceeded his accomplishments."
From the Denver Post November 26, 1997
******
Here now are the O Antiphons listed for each day until Christmas Eve 🎄
Dec 17 : O Sapientia : O Wisdom
Dec 18: O Adonai : O Lord
Dec 19: O Radix Jesse : O Root of Jesse
Dec 20: O Clavis David : O Key of David
Dec 21: O Oriens : O Radiant Dawn or Morning Star
Dec 22: O Rex Gentium : O King (Desire) of All Nations
Dec 23: O Emmanuel : O God With Us
Please have a most blessed last week of Advent and into the Christmas Season
Fr Bill McNichols
Dec 17 (happy 80th birthday Pope Francis!) 2016

Advent 2016

November 26th, 2016

Our Lady of the New Advent : Gate of Heaven
Our Lady of the New Advent : the Burning Bush

It's often said that one person or event can change your life forever , but can one painting or artwork ...in this case an icon change you forever?
This one did. It was only my third icon and I was not yet comfortable with the entire "genre " or experience or vocation yet. I was in every way a beginner and to be asked to do this icon for the Archdiocese of Denver was a surprise filled with anxiety. But I had the best teacher "in the World" in my estimation, Robert Lentz, (now Brother Robert Lentz, OFM) the Russian American Master of Iconography.
When I finished the icon it was used almost immediately as the cover of a book
"Queen of Prophets : The Gospel Message of Medjugorje"
By Dudley Plunkett
Doubleday Press 1992
I had no idea then (1991) that I'd be taken to visit Medjugorje four times beginning in 1997. I had no idea a print of this icon would be taken to Rome by kids of the Archdiocese of Denver to convince Pope John Paul II to come to Denver for the occasion of World Youth Day 1993. I had no idea I would do a second icon of Our Lady of the New Advent: the Burning Bush for him, and that I'd end up giving it to him personally on 14 August 1993 in Denver...no idea I'd be blessed beyond words to be in the aura of a Saint.
All these miracles small and large came from this icon.
And in 1992 the icon was given a feastday December 16, the next day the 17th the ancient "O Antiphons" begin with "O Wisdom" and bear a different name for Christ each day until the 24th. You can hear the different titles in the song "O Come O Come Emmanuel " sung all through the Advent season. And this song often appears on Christmas CDs.
There is so much more to say about this icon but I'd like to say, that through this icon I also ended up visiting Our Lady of Akita in Japan. I was there in April 1999 when the terrible Columbine Murders struck the world with grief. It was then I saw why the Holy Child was holding the columbines in his hand. They were the children that had been killed. I had been instructed by the commissioner, Archbishop (now Cardinal) Stafford to put the Colorado state flower somewhere in the icon.
As Advent begins we are aware of the coming darkness, I mean that it actually is a darker time. I will never forget a thought I read at the time I was working on this icon, from the book "The Cult of the Black Virgin by Ean Begg." The author said that Black Madonnas are mysteriously popular, they draw you in, because the Black Madonna symbolizes not the darkness of despair but the darkness (or waiting) of pregnancy.
May this icon or any in the world you might choose to pray with, heal you, heal us, this Advent of 2016 when there is great fear of the darkness in our world. May she only shed her light as she presents to you, in a mandorla (almond shape a mandala is round) within her, the Light of the World. May the Archangel Gabriel's words to Mary at the Annunciation (Luke 1 : 30) be spoken within you as well:
(from the Amplified Edition of the Bible)
"Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace free, spontaneous, absolute favor and loving- kindness) with God."

Fr Bill McNichols
Advent 2016

Jesuit Martyr Thomas Anchanikal

October 31st, 2016

This recent Jesuit Martyr Thomas Anchanikal was beheaded on October 25 1997 like two of the "Apostles to India" before him, St Thomas the Apostle and St John de Brito. I hope if you are moved to do so, you will look up his story on google. I painted him using the Indian symbol of a tiger killing an antelope to show his gentle yet strong martyr's love for his own people like Jesus. I also used the idea of him holding his severed head after icons of St John the Baptist. The icon is at Santa Clara University in California and I personally believe students are incredibly interested and inspired by true martyrs. The icon then is intentionally "calling" the students to ask questions and look into this Martyr who sought for justice especially for the poorest of the poor.
Fr Bill McNichols
25 October 2016

Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asis

October 4th, 2016

Nuestro Padre San Francisco de Asis

It�s no exaggeration to say that Francis was probably one of the few true fundamentalists that have ever lived. Once he was converted at age 25 he looked to the Gospels for every step of his way. If Jesus said � Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do to me ...� then Francis named his group the Frati Minori ...the Least Brothers.
Francis only lived to be 44 but two years before he died, he felt like a failure.
His least brothers had grown from 12 to over 3,000 and he could no longer guide or control them. So he had a dream that he was a black mother hen with pink feet surrounded by chicks that were running everywhere. He interpreted the dream to mean he must surrender his order to the Pope and go to Mt La Verna, north of Assisi, to bemoan his sins of failure. He left on August 15, the feast of the Assumption, to make what he called �St Michael�s Lent� until the feast of the Archangel on September 29 th.
Francis had asked for two graces of Jesus to complete his following the Gospels.One, that he feel in his whole being the feelings and pain of Jesus as He died on Mt Calvary. Two, that he experience the love of Christ that could forgive even from the Cross. Somewhere around the 14th the feast of the Holy Cross and the 17th (the church used to have a feast of the Holy Stigmata on the 17th.) of September Francis saw something no one has ever seen before or since. Out of the sky came a figure of Christ Crucified bearing the six wings of a Seraph. It was the answer to his prayer for the two graces. He felt the pain of Christ and also the Seraphic love of Christ. Francis would live two more years until 3 October 1226, seared with the Stigmata. He was the first person ever to receive them. During those brief years he would continue to heal with his wounds. When the brothers would wash out the bandages, they would use the water to heal sick animals and people. This for me, is the most beautiful part of the story as we are all asked to continue to work with and heal with our wounds; they don�t disappear.
After the Resurrection the Lord Himself shows His disciples His wounds. God could have easily removed them as He did the flagellation marks and all the horrific damage to Jesus� body. In the great legend of St Martin of Tours (San Martin Caballero) Martin has an apparition of a figure who says he is Christ the King, but Martin knows better because the figure has no wounds. It angrily vanishes in a whiff of sulphur.
I�ve lost count of how many times I�ve drawn, painted or created icons of the love of Francis for and with, his Seraphic Lord Jesus. It�s a meditation/contemplation I never tire of bringing to life; these wounds so ever present in all of us that Pope Francis has referred to the Church as a �Field Hospital� where we tend to one another as Church, as if on a field of continuing battles.
I hope this image brings you hours of meditation, seraphic joy and sends you back into the world to share in Jesus� Healing Gifts.

Fr William Hart McNichols
A happy feast of St. Francis and happy name day to Pope Francis!
October 4, 2016

Mother of the Incarnate Word

September 8th, 2016

Mother of the Incarnate Word

In 1996 I was asked to do five icons for the Jesuits at Boston College and it was in Boston I met Fr Jim Martin, SJ who was a theology student at the time. His community wanted an icon that would be a Contemplation on theology. We were at dinner somewhere in Cambridge when he asked me. Immediately what came to mind was the beautiful Kaluga Icon of the Mother of God. I had seen a black and white picture of the icon in the Orthodox biography of the life and mystical revelations of a Russian Eldress: Schemanun Macaria (+1993) called "Beloved Sufferer " by Gennady Durasov.
In the icon Mary was pictured about fourteen years old and absorbed in a book of holy scripture. I decided to have Mary pregnant too , in order to say that Christ is in the holy scriptures as the word, but also inside Mary as the word incarnate. This symbolizes the study of theology for me; that we read the word, and the word is also inside all of us too. I will end with a well known Orthodox prayer praising Mary as Mother of God:
"More honorable than the Cherubim, more glorious beyond
compare than the Seraphim.
No mind comprehends how to praise thee fittingly."
I offer this icon for your contemplation on the feast of the Birth of the Mother of God.

8 September 2016
Fr Bill McNichols

St John the Forerunner. Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist 29 August

August 29th, 2016

St John the Forerunner :
Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist 29 August
So many powerful, spiritual and artistic images of John the Baptist swirl around me today on the feast of his martyrdom. John's two feasts begin and end the season of summer. I think of all the Gospel accounts of the Evangelists, and Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich's beautiful visions of John woven within her Life of Christ, scripture scholar Joan Taylor's excellent and instructive book "The Immerser : John the Baptist Within Second Temple Judaism", Michael Damaskino's gaunt and majestic 16th century Greek icon which is the prototype for this icon, Andrea del Verrocchio's very, very tender and youthful John in his 15th century bust in the Washington DC National Gallery, Pasolini and Zefferelli's John in film, Ken Russell's radiantly pure John in "Salome" surrounded by the utter decadence of Herod's court, Emmy Lou Harris' literally moving, inspired version of Bill Monroe's song "Get Up John", and the still haunting, tragic pictures of the recent death of Catholic journalist James Foley.
On The feast of the birth of John, June 24 1981, it is believed that the Mother of God began appearing in the once tiny village of Medjugorje, in Bosnia. This is not yet approved by the church officially because the apparitions are still happening and is still quite controversial. On June 26 two days later, Mary appeared weeping and begging for prayers, asking to be called the Queen of Peace. It was ten years to the day when the wars in Bosnia would begin. You rarely hear from the pilgrims who come back from Medjugorje that Mostar is only 17 miles away. Mostar was hit harder than Sarajevo during the war, much of the city was destroyed. There were so many deaths that open parks had to be converted to cemeteries.
This icon is part of a diptych which was commissioned by Fr Svetozar , one of the Friars who lived at that time, in Medjugorje, the other panel is Our Lady of Medjugorje : the Burning Bush. By appearing on John 's feast Mary is saying she is the prophet of the Second Advent or the New Advent as St John Paul II proclaimed these times to be, in his first encyclical Redemptor Hominis. Why Medjugorje? One explanation is that the Croatian people , as well as the Friars, have always remained faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have resisted amidst martyrdom and persecution for centuries, becoming secularized. And they obviously (if you have experienced them) hold onto something of the Baptist's immersion ...when the young (at the time) visionaries asked the Mother of God " who is the holiest person in the village " she pointed to a Muslim woman and told them all religions are from God and you are not a Christian if you do not respect other true religions. Of course this does not mean cults.
John the Baptist was willing to baptize anyone with a humble interior disposition. But you had to come to him already humbled, ready to change, aware that you were a sinner, empty and hungering for God; not self-righteous as if you deserved Baptism.
"As we have seen, in Isaiah 1:12-15, God is described as saying that Temple worship is futile as are sacrifices, prayers, and festivals. For God, is not pleased with his people because their 'hands are full of blood.' In Matthew 3:11 John states 'I immerse you in water for repentance.' If one wanted to distinguish John's immersion from any other type of immersion, one would need to link it with the reason it was necessary : repentance ...repentance was for, or going towards, inward cleansing ...the process cannot go back to front. John's immersion was not primary or initiatory, as though one were accounted righteous afterwards. This notion was precisely what he rejected outright ...John immersed after righteousness had been attained."
Joan Taylor
Let's end then, with the famous words of St Augustine about the Immerser :
"Now there are many things that can be said of John the Baptist, but let me sum it up in a nutshell,
He must increase,
I must decrease."

Fr Bill McNichols
29 August 2016

St Louis IX and his son Philip III

August 29th, 2016

St Louis IX and his son Philip III
Patron of France and Bridegrooms
It's easy to look at the Medieval world and criticize it, and it's saints, from our "much wiser and less violent " world, which we all realize is not true. From any point of view, however, Louis had his blind prejudices; his engagement with the anti-semitism of the Disputation of Paris, and his active support of the Crusades, which it seems only one Saint at that time was against, and that's the supernaturally inspired, Hildegard of Bingen. St Hildegard also had a "theology of ecology:Viriditas " we see now is 800 years ahead of her time. And we are still engaged in coming up with truly Christian answers, and active responses, to the same problems of the inter-religious nature which St Louis faced. In fact these are the most urgent and pressing problems, along with the very survival of our earth, of today's leaders.
St. Louis was born of a Spanish mother and French father in 1214 and became King after his father died when he was just 12 years old. He was happily married to Margaret of Provence and together they had 11 children. His biography by one of his closest companions, Sir John de Joinville, is still available and I'm fairly certain if you read it, you will find his greatness, compassion, holiness and strikingly contemporary sense of humor, outweigh his blind spots. Can any of us claim to be above and beyond our own prejudices, be they religious or political? We all share that "disease" due to what St Paul calls the "fleshy" part of us meaning that stubborn blindness.
This icon was commissioned by St Louis Church in Littleton, Colorado, and I used the portrait by El Greco as my model. His son and successor, Philip, holds the testimony written to him by his father on how to be a good King, which I read at Mass from The Divine Office every August 25th. I dedicated the icon to my father, Stephen L.R. McNichols a man I know loved and ruled with Justice, and cared for the less fortunate as foremost in his mind, heart and governance.
Fr Bill McNichols
25 August 2016

The Dormition of the Mother of God

August 15th, 2016

The Dormition of the Mother of God

She sleeps who
knew no rest here.
Promised early on
a knife in her soul
watching relatives, friends,
multitudes, dividing, deciding,
and finally calling for the blood
of the Word clothed in
her very own flesh .
Stabat Mater Dolorosa,
all through the grisly passion
a helpless harmony...
the tears that would not stop,
the convulsive grief,
then all life leaving
from her eyes,
from His wounds.
Now He returns to take
her soul and body.
She of the abused and powerless,
she of the stifled and wordless,
she of the empty and outcast.
She is crowned forever
Queen of all Heaven and Earth
in the kingdom of reversals.
And we, her waiting children
are assured such an ending,
after dust, we too shall be
carried Home
in the mandorla
of the Rising Son.

In virtually every icon of the Mother of God she pleads, prays, grieves and shines with the presence of her Son. To look at her is to see her love for Him. The essence of the Dormition for me, is His love for her. This is also an icon of the joyful promise of a Christian's death. Here Christ's love gives life to the body of the one who loved Him unconditionally as Mother and true Disciple. Here He becomes mother as He carefully cradles her soul and takes her Home.
John, the Beloved Disciple, weeps and hovers over the body of the Mother given to him with Jesus' halting, broken words from the Cross. The candle moves with the presence of the Lord. John does not yet see Him in the radiant mandorla of light.
Archangel Gabriel bows low in loving recognition once again, of the one who became Mother of the Word Incarnate and Mother of all her offspring until the end of time and into eternity.
Thus icon was commissioned by the Jesuit magazine, America.

Fr William Hart McNichols
August 15 2016

Our Lady and the Holy Child Jesus Visit St Ignatius the Convalescent in Loyola

July 28th, 2016

Our Lady and the Holy Child Jesus Visit St Ignatius the Convalescent in Loyola

"...But in that house none of those books which he normally read could be found, and so they gave him a life of Christ and a book of the lives of the saints in Spanish ... Still, Our Lord was helping him, causing other thoughts, which were born of the things he was reading, to follow these. For, while reading the lives of Our Lord and the saints, he would stop to think, reasoning with himself : 'How would it be, if I did this which St Francis did, and this which St Dominic did?' ...And here the desire to imitate the saints were occurring to him, not considering the details beyond promising himself, with the grace of God, to' do it as they had done it'... These desires were confirmed for him by a visitation as follows : being awake one night, he saw clearly a likeness of Our Lady with the Holy Child Jesus, at the sight of which, for an appreciable time, he received a very extraordinary consolation. He was left so sickened at his whole past life, especially at matters of the flesh, that it seemed to him that there had been removed from his soul all the likeness that he had previously painted in it."

From the Autobiography of St Ignatius Loyola

**************
Before I began a life as an apprentice Iconographer, I was a student at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. My goal at that time in the 1980's, was to be an illustrator of children's books. I think I illustrated over twenty, including some too, for adults.
One is still available from Paulist Press called The Hurt by Teddi Doleski. These books were so joyful to do and I asked the late Fr Jim Janda to write a trilogy on the Holy Child as a way of teaching children about the kingdom of God. These were The Legend of St Christopher, The Legend of the Holy Child of Atocha and (the legend of the Infant of Prague, titled) Appointments With the Little King. Many more books followed before I sensed that I was being called to paint other images and also enter the world of painting icons, technically called "writing" icons because the Iconographer is doing a work of sacred theology. I offer this drawing made during my life as an illustrator, and the beautiful story of the holy visit, for this year's feast of St Ignatius, 31 July.

Fr Bill McNichols
July 2016
Books Available at:
https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL393234A/J._Janda
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=william+hart+mcnichols

St Andrei Rublev, Patron of Iconographers

July 4th, 2016

St Andrei Rublev : 1370-1430
Patron of Iconographers : feast day 4 July
Any list of the top 10 or 15 movies ever made will contain Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece Andrei Rublev also known as The Passion of Andrei Rublev.
" ... In Tarkovsky's own turbulent time, the film lit all manners of controversy. It's Christian spiritualism offended the Soviet authorities ...and it's challenging form led to various cuts. After opening in Moscow in 1966, it was suppressed until the 1969 Cannes Film Festival and it didn't reach Britain until 1973 ....
When in the final minutes, the film pulls off its most famous flourish : the ( black and white ) screen bursts into colour and we're finally ready to see Rublev's paintings in extreme close-up-coming at the end of his epic journey, they can reduce a viewer to tears ...We're reminded of what beauty is. It's as close to transcendence as cinema gets."
Steve Rose
The Guardian 2010
"Andrei Rublev is described by the chroniclers as a man of great humility, 'full of joy and brightness.' His art was the same; limpid and deep, supremely luminous, invested with the privilege of a perpetual childhood. "
Kostas Papaioannou
This icon depicts the medieval Iconographer, canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. Here the blessed Monk holds the face of Christ from his magnificent icon (the hospitality of Abraham and Sarah) of The Most Blessed Trinity.
Though it has been copied innumerable times, no one has ever been able to render the grace and loving quality, as each angelic figure defers to one another creating an endless circle of divine love. It has been a source of wonder and awe for centuries for people who contemplate this timeless icon of the holy Spirit inspired St Andrei Rublev.
Fr Bill McNichols
July 2016

The Passion of Matthew Shepard. June 14, 2016

June 30th, 2016

I assisted at a funeral today and this first reading spoke to me of the great tragedy and grief we all feel about the murders of innocent people in Orlando.
A reading from the Book of Lamentations 3:17-26
My soul is deprived of peace,
I have forgotton what happiness is;
I tell myself my future is lost,
all that I hoped for from the Lord.
The thought of homeless poverty
is wormwood and gall;
Remembering it over and over
leaves my soul downcast within me.
But I will call this to mind,
as my reason to have hope:
The favors of the Lord are not exhausted,
his mercies are not spent;
They are renewed each morning,
so great is his faithfulness.
My portion is the Lord, says my soul;
therefore will I hope in him.
Good is the Lord to one who waits for him,
to the soul that seeks him;
It is good to hope in silence
(and in loving community)
for the saving help of the Lord.
The Passion of Matthew Shepard is an image I created for the contemplation and conversion of hatred and homophobia as a part of a Lenten issue on contemporary passions in Maryknoll Magazine.
Fr. Bill McNichols
June 2016

The Bride Images of the Church. June 12, 2016

June 30th, 2016

The Bride : Images of the Church
By Daniel Berrigan, SJ
Orbis Press, 2000
I have been unusually blessed to have prophetic, poetic as well as very talented writers look into the icons which have been "given to me." This includes Megan McKenna, Fr. John Dear and Mirabai Starr, all published through the kindness, insight and generosity of my friend Robert Ellsberg Editor of Orbis Press.
The first book was written by the late Daniel Berrigan, SJ and I chose the title to echo his very first book called "The Bride : Essays in the Church" published in 1959.
I had been introduced to Daniel Berrigan's writings in the Novitiate at age 19 and he became a mentor to me long before I actually met him in 1983. If you google the articles that have been written about Dan since his death on April 30, you will see how many thousands of people he mentored through his heroic peace work and activism, his hospice work at St Rose and St Vincent's in NYC and his searing, dazzling and absolutely unique writing of brilliant poetry and over 50 books on Scripture.
I was missioned by the Society of Jesus to begin an apprenticeship as an iconographer in 1990 and every icon and image (almost 300 now) have been for the Society and the Church. Dan commissioned 3 icons of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, William Stringfellow and Holy Prophet Benjamin Salmon. After his brother Philip died in December 2002 I came home from his funeral in Baltimore and began work on his icon too. Now I am working on one of Dan and it's impossible to put into words the feelings and prayers I am having working on someone I knew so intimately. It's a blessing I knew someday would be asked of me, yet to actually sit with him, talk with him, continue to love him, is a mixture of grief and elation; a joy, an honor I pray, will come through to you when the icon is finished. One of my cherished memories is accompanying Dan to an upstate New York retreat center where a group of Vietnam Veterans had asked him to give them a retreat, they had felt he was the best priest to understand their suffering. A man who had shown the true meaning of compassion - "to suffer with."
Rest in Peace, in the Light of His Presence - dear friend, mentor to multitudes of people of all faiths, artistic genius guided by the Spirit, and Holy Prophet Daniel Berrigan, SJ. Watch over us dear Dan, and give us the courage to keep seeking for and listening to God's will and to be faithful to our vocations.
June 2016
Fr Bill McNichols

Mother of God Similar To Fire. May 25.2016

June 30th, 2016

In May this year, Pentecost and also the traditional month of Mary:
Mother of God Similar To Fire
Published by Orbis Press
In 1990 I bought my first book on icons published by Rizzoli, New York. It is called simply "Russian Icons" by Father Vladimir Ivanov and within that book I found so many beautiful icons I would later try to copy. Such as the title of the book, the enigmatic "Mother of God Similar To Fire", which originally came out in hardback in 2010 and is now in paperback. It is often the title of the icon as well as the beauty which leads me to copy it so that people from the West can experience some of the Russian Orthodox mystical spiritual genius. My friend and brilliant writer Mirabai Starr wrote 51 unique prayer/poems for each icon and image. It is a book so many people have told me they look through all year, whether it is May, Advent, or Lent and find something new each time, and comfort in times of struggle or grief.
The icon shown is called "Mother of God Your Lap Has Become the Holy Table" and is a 19th century Russian Icon which seemed to be perfect to copy in 1999 for the coming of the Eucharistic Year of 2000 which was given to the world by St John Paul II. In this icon I love the evocation of the Tabernacle as Mary's womb. On the feasts of Mary we often get readings at Mass from the Hebrew Bible of the carrying of the sacred Ark of the Covenant where the presence of God dwells. Mary becomes the literal fulfillment of the Ark of the Covenant as she carried the Infant Jesus in her body.
Fr Bill McNichols
25 May 2016
My 37th Anniversary of Ordination 1979

Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth. May 15, 2016

June 30th, 2016

Come Holy Spirit and renew the face of the Earth.
Inspire us to care for her as well as each other.
Inflame us with the courageous love of Holy Father
Pope Francis to include all people in the voice and
ministry of our Mother Church.
St John XXIII and St John Paul II prayed for a New
Pentecost which has truly, already begun; help us to
receive you Holy Spirit who bring these abundant graces.
Give us wisdom and guidance in our daily lives and lead
us always, through the Gospels into the heart and mind
of Jesus the Lord.
Amen

Trees for Rivera Funeral Home in Taos, New Mexico

April 19th, 2016

I was asked by Tim Rivera to do something for the room in the Rivera Funeral Home, in Taos New Mexico, which might bring Hope and Comfort to families of all Faiths, as they sit in the main room during a service for their deceased loved ones.
I thought of 3 images of Trees that would convey different seasons, and also the life of the soul.
1 ) Trees of Winter Life
These trees symbolize what seems to be simply cold death, to us who see them.
And yet trees underneath the most bitter and cold snow are not really dead.
A candle burns beneath them symbolizing that they are destined to come back to life. The body dies but the soul is eternal, and the Full Moon is our night light.
2 )Tree of Life
A single pine tree grows out of a sepia-green color.
As it rises, it gains full green and life. The tree is surrounded by a Sun nurturing the climbing growth.
The Rose tops the tree as it's Crown. The Fiery Rose is a famous symbol in T.S Eliot's mystical masterpiece of poetry, The Four Quartets. In the last poem after quoting Julian of Norwich, he ends with:
"When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one."
3 ) Tree of Souls
At Mass we say to God concerning the dead, who have now transformed into souls,
"Welcome them into the light of your face."
How to picture souls rising into a Light which speaks of hope and a beautiful Star guiding them home?
Listening to a book on CDs The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, I heard a longing for an After Life in the two teenagers who are the center of the novel.
In my imagination I saw this Tree.

Fr William Hart McNichols
Summer 2014

My 911 Saint - Therese of Lisieux

April 9th, 2016

As we enter Springtime,
I'd like to bring you to Therese.
Although we love all the saints for different reasons, when in great difficulty I always call on her as my 911 Saint . No one else answers so quickly. No one else makes you feel like she knows you and your problems so completely, as if she were your best friend, as Therese.
Several years ago I was living in Arroyo Secco, Northern New Mexico and it was a very harsh winter. Before a Mass on Sunday evening I was praying to her and as I entered the church of the Most Holy Trinity, the music director gave me a book she found that day at an out door sale, it was Kathryn Harrison's Penguin Biography of Therese. It's the most unusual book on Therese , and the one I think she wanted me to read . I've read it several times , I'm reading it right now. What makes it unusual is that Kathryn does her best to try to make Therese real and free from hagiographical touch ups. So that she has been criticized for not understanding the spirituality of the Saint. For me it was just what I needed, in that, it brought me closer to Therese than ever before, and I had first read about her as a child in the Vision Book Series called St Therese and the Roses by Helen Walker Homan. My icon is based on her two names as a Carmelite:
Sister Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.
Let me end with the most beautiful poem on St Therese by my deceased friend and mentor Fr Jim Janda:

Therese de l'Enfant Jesus

Clip the bird's
wing
the desire to
fly
remains like
seeking
the Christ when
the
only meaning is
memory-of a
promise
made while
holding
an opening rose
white
as the wafer
received
believing senses
are
deceived

and that coughing
blood
means only that
the
soul will be
separated
from the body
and the only
position
possible is of
childhood
looking up

by Fr James Janda +

Fr Bill McNichols
April 2016

The Risen Lord Appears To His Mother Mary

March 27th, 2016

The Risen Lord Appears To His Mother Mary

I think my favorite painting of the Resurrection is the dazzling multicolored rising Lord by Matthias Grunewald where the shroud is lit with color and a large glowing rainbow aureole surrounds Christ. And you often see the stately, serene and victorious Risen Christ in Piero della Francesco's famous painting too. But I chose to copy and simplify the right panel of Rogier van der Weyden's Risen Lord from the Miraflores Triptych because the Lord in this beautiful work seems so tender and still "kind of shaking" as he appears to his mother. Both Teresa of Avila and Ignatius Loyola took for granted that Jesus must have come first to his mother, before anyone else.
At different times in your life, you look into a painting or an icon and it seems exactly right, to speak directly to you as a prayer. I also have a copy of Mark Rothko's "alive" painting called "Saffron:1957" which is a masterpiece evoking pure Resurrection to me.
I hope this icon after van der Weyden will bring you the quiet, momentous moment when Mary first sees her risen son, filled with the movement of sorrow-into- joy she must have felt. A blessed Easter season to you All!

Fr Bill McNichols
Easter Sunday 2016

Holy Week and Our Lady of Magadan

March 23rd, 2016

Holy Week and Our Lady of Magadan
I believe it was during this same time, Holy Week in 1994 that I completed this commission for (now deceased) Archbishop Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska to give to the Orthodox Bishop of Magadan, Far East, Russia. Magadan is so distant it's not called Siberia , but Far East it's actually "above" Japan and only 4 hours flight from Anchorage, in the Bay of the Sea of Ohotsk.
Archbishop Hurley wanted to open a Catholic parish in Magadan and he longed to give a gift of an appropriate icon.
Magadan was a concentration camp of the former Soviet Union from 1938 under Stalin until it closed in 1955 under Krushchev. No one knows how many thousands of people died in the prison camps and are buried there. I traveled there in October 1995, and could write many pages on my short but indelible visit; most of all I remember the incredible generosity of the Pastor Fr Michael Shields and the Russian people. And I also visited the Lavra (monastery) of St Sergius of Radonezh, where the Orthodox monks commissioned another icon, Our Lady of Pochaev, which is now in their monastery church. An honor I will never forget.
When designing the icon for Magadan, with its tragic history, I could only imagine a Pieta. I added the pastel or Easter colors to give a sense of what the grieving Mother would soon experience through her Risen Son.
I dedicate the icon and the prayers it hopefully inspires, this year, to the grieving people in Brussels, Belgium and to anyone suffering from a recent loss.
Fr Bill McNichols
Holy Week 2016

Mary, Mother of Mercy - Dedicated to Pope Francis in this Year of Mercy

March 11th, 2016

Mary, Mother of Mercy
(Dedicated to Pope Francis in this Year of Mercy)

"...Send your Spirit and consecrate
everyone of us with its
anointing, so that the Jubilee of Mercy
may be a year of grace
from the Lord, and your
Church, with renewed enthusiasm,
may bring good news to the poor,
proclaim liberty to the captives and the
oppressed, and restore sight to the blind.
We ask this through the intercession of
Mary, Mother of Mercy,
you who live and reign with the
Father and the Holy Spirit
forever and ever.
Amen "
Pope Francis

After hearing the truly good news that Pope Francis had planned to consecrate us all in a Year of Mercy, I immediately went looking for a prototype of an icon I could give to people wanting to pray with an icon of Mary and the Child. While looking at many "tenderness icons" I found instead, the Terebinskaya Icon, which is probably one of the happiest icons I have ever seen. This icon caused me to reexamine the whole concept of the joyful effects of Mercy. It would evoke the blessings on the merciful from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount ....how happy, how blessed are the merciful!
Our Mother is praying in the ancient "orans" position with hands outstretched and raised while looking tenderly, with so much love at her Child. The Child seems to literally dance upon the world, as Holy Wisdom in Proverbs 8:30, 31.
As the Messiah he is always bringing, and playfully showering his abundant gifts upon our world.
I used the same green atmosphere around the world as in the Viriditas Icon commissioned by Loyola Chicago last year , to show that , not only is mercy alive, but it continues to actually transform our natural world. For us who at times can be severely limited in our ability to know how to forgive and be merciful, this Child can open and easily create infinite possibilities in our everyday lives - still unknown to us, for the miracles of mercy to happen.

Fr Bill McNichols
March 2016

Variation On Our Lady of Sorrows

February 17th, 2016

Variation On Our Lady of Sorrows
"For I know that my redeemer lives ..."
Job 19:25

As a part of the Passion Triptych I had painted (written) an icon of Our Lady of Sorrows that shows the Blessed Mother lifting up one empty hand, the very hand that once held the Christ Child. We see this mother almost every night on tv news, bereft and grieving over the loss of some child or children in one or another recent accident, incident of violence or natural disaster. Then there are flowers brought by people to the scene of death or to the family.
In this image I wanted to symbolically represent both the mother and the flowers.
We usually associate white lilies with Easter. Yet during Lent we are not yet witnessing the Resurrection yet . And so the red lilies speak of the Passion; of the three days before Easter and the passion of terrible grief and loss. God can and will turn our grief into joy, someday - even during our life on earth. And we wait, sometimes for years, in the most stark faith and dark night for Him to return.
Having worked in a hospice for so many years I learned, slowly, reverently, that grief has its own time. You cannot set a time for anyone's grief to end. The Book of Job cautions us about being glib or judgmental with easy answers because we cannot bear to be with someone too long in their grief. Gustavo Gutierrez' book on Job has the most comforting "answer" to Job's grief, that in the end It is simply God's presence, appearance to Job that heals his grief; not an explanation.
And so this symbolic picture of Mary inside the Passion of her Son is a reminder that hers and our grief will one day change with the apparition of the Risen Lord, however and in what way, He chooses to come to us.

Fr Bill McNichols
February 2016

Passion Triptych http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/featured/passion-triptych-william-hart-mcnichols.html

For Lent 2016- Jesus Christ Morning Star - Jesucristo El Lucero Radiante del Alba

February 17th, 2016

For Lent 2016: Jesus Christ Morning Star
(Jesucristo El Lucero Radiante del Alba)

Following the murders in 1999 of the teenagers at Columbine High School in Colorado , I began to imagine creating an Icon of Jesus as a teenager. It seems that the world children have inherited is increasingly impossible for them to bear. With the recent massive number of deaths, in so many ways, we all feel the stalking presence of evil.

In 2001 Olga Torres-Reid invited me to create an altar for the Day of the Dead, in an exhibit, held in Taos, New Mexico entitled "Sobre Muerte" which placed me directly at the center of this tension. Death itself is not evil. St Francis of Assisi spoke to death as our friend, Sister Death. However the deliberate murder of innocent people is evil. How to respond to this conflict? Bringing the teenage Christ into the worl , gave me an opportunity to respond through art.

The frame was carved for this exhibit by my friend, the master woodworker and Santero, Roberto Lavadie. I had seen the haunting image of the skull with wings during my years of study in Boston, on the old New England gravestones. What does it mean for a skull to have wings?

I painted the frame black and white and brought a Taos teenager, as Christ, into the ominous landscape and sky, as the color , the light , and the life in the midst of death. Before I finished this work, the horrendous disaster of September 11 shook the world and so I painted the wounds onto the hands of Christ. Jesucristo El Lucero Radiante del Alba comes from the last chapter of the Apocalypse (Revelation), chapter 22 verse 16:

"I am the Light of the Dawn or the Bright Morning Star."

Though surrounded by darkness, death has no dominion over the youthful Lord of Life.

Fr Bill McNichols
Lent of 2016

Heart Speaks to Heart

February 17th, 2016

Michele L. Catanese has a Master’s degree in Christian Spirituality as well as certification as a Spiritual Director and Retreat Director from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. She was a Religious of the Cenacle for 7 years during which time she began training as a Spiritual director. In addition to Creighton University, she did her theological studies at St. Vincent’s Seminary in Latrobe, PA, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh, PA, and Boston College in Boston, MA. She taught Theology, primarily Scripture and Christian Spirituality, at the high school level for 22 years and she offered faith formation, spiritual consultation, and educational formation for faculty. Michele has also taught adult education courses on Scripture, Prayer, and Christian Spirituality. She has given various seminars, days of prayer, and retreats in a number of cities and she has practiced spiritual direction since 1986.

http://www.catanesesd.com/micheles-blog/let-love-decide-everything

The Silence of St Thomas Aquinas - Feast Day January 28

January 26th, 2016

The Silence of St Thomas Aquinas ( feast day January 28 )
In my six year apprenticeship with master Iconographer, Friar Robert Lentz, OFM, I began to experience the importance of the silent mystery in so many enigmatic icons, such as Mother of God Similar to Fire and Jesus Christ Redeemer Holy Silence. I think in the West we are uncomfortable with mystery and silence. We want an immediate explanation of what we are looking at in a work of art, but that kind of impatience will only frustrate the viewer of icons.
This icon of Thomas Aquinas deferring to an apparition of Holy Wisdom, is the result of reading two books on the Angelic Doctor:
Aquinas Search For Wisdom by Vernon Bourke and Silence of St Thomas by Josef Pieper.
(we ) "...man, in his philosophical inquiry, is faced again and again with the experience that reality is unfathomable and Being is mystery - an experience, it is true, which urges him not so much to communicate as to silence. But it would not be the silence of resignation, and still less the silence of despair. It would be the silence of reverence."
J. Pieper
Happy Feast Day Angelic Doctor St Thomas!

St Catherine of Siena- Guardian of the Papacy

January 7th, 2016

St Catherine of Siena: Guardian of the Papacy
(1347-1380)
For the people of the Church of the Risen Savior, Albuquerque, New Mexico
(From their Pastor Fr Timothy Martinez)

One of my favorite biographies of Catherine is by her spiritual guide, the Dominican friar, Blessed Raymond of Capua, still available today. But if you are looking for a glimpse of Catherine in a brief (25 page ) essay, there is nothing better than Carol Lee Flinders portrait in her beautiful book, "Enduring Grace: Living Portraits of Seven Women Mystics."
During the papacies of Popes St John Paul II and Benedict XVI, I found and held onto, a picture of a mosaic of Catherine holding the papal tiara worn by Popes of the past, actually up until St John XXIII who wore it right after his election (I think Blessed Paul VI did too). Catherine has always been connected intimately with the Church and specifically with the Pope. So I began to think of the tiara as a kind of earthly crown, in people's eyes, but the actual tiara worn by any pope, bishop, pastor, male or female superior of a religious order, or any great leader, is the Crown of Thorns.
I see this clearly with all the popes of my life beginning with Pius XII, and especially now with Pope Francis I. In this year of Mercy, I imagine Catherine asking us to have a special kind of Mercy, for the Pope himself. She asks in this icon that we continually pray for him and if you can, love him too; I personally do, with enormous thanksgiving.

Fr Bill McNichols
January 2016

St Jude Patron of the Impossible- Feast Day October 28

November 3rd, 2015

St Jude Patron of the Impossible
Feast Day October 28

I can remember living in NYC in the 80's and continually seeing on the back page of local alternative newspapers the words "Thank you St Jude for ..." A multitude of things. There was never a mention of any other Saint and the requests and testimonies of answered prayers always moved my heart into a prayer.
The popular iconography, or colors and symbolism of St Jude are now set; whether it be statues, candles, holy cards or novenas. He looks similar to Jesus, he wears green, he holds a club or staff of his martyrdom, he also holds a medallion or cloth of the Holy Face of Jesus, and there is a flame of the Holy Spirit over his head.
You can google the ancient story of the miracle performed by St. Jude with the Holy Face and King Abgar of Edessa; a beautiful narrative of Jude's first mission after Jesus' death and Resurrection.
But how did he get to be patron of the impossible?
I found a "clue" in Adrienne von Speyr's wonderful Book of All Saints where in her portrait of Jude she calls him "a beast of burden" that during his life he already carried lots of people's troubles and burdens to God. And then she says a most beautiful thing about our Saint Jude:
"He prays well and a lot, especially petitionary prayer. And if someone makes a mistake, then he is the one who prays most for him and petitions in his name for forgiveness... He is a beast of burden, who loads burdens on himself and carries them to God ... He is also the one who understands others, a person to whom they are able to go. He is like a confessor for all of them."
Page 279, Book of All Saints

Most of Fr. Bill's icons are done as commissions, but this original icon of St. Jude was done as a special prayer for cancer patients. It is available for sale, if you are interested please contact us.

3 card choices for Christmas

November 3rd, 2015

3 card choices for Christmas

1) Our Lady of Maryknoll
In light of Pope Francis recent beautiful Encyclical, "Laudato Si" about our care and concern for "our common home", I chose this icon of the Holy Child lovingly holding our world, for this Christmas.
http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/products/our-lady-of-maryknoll-100th-anniversary-icon-223-william-hart-mcnichols-greeting-card.html

2) Hagia Hesychia : Jesus Christ Redeemer Holy Silence
This is my version of an enigmatic, beautiful 19th century Angelic icon who represents the young Jesus, and a call, especially in Advent, into a contemplative place within us.
http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/products/hagia-hesychia-jesus-christ-redeemer-holy-silence-086-william-hart-mcnichols-greeting-card.html

3) The Holy Family of Bethlehem
Less than two miles from the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem is the Holy Family Hospital . What a privilege to create this icon for this extraordinary maternity hospital that serves women and men of all faiths.
http://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/products/the-holy-family-for-the-holy-family-hospital-of-bethlehem-272-william-hart-mcnichols-greeting-card.html

St Teresa of Avila - Doctor of the Church

October 8th, 2015

St Teresa of Avila:Doctor of the Church
(she is shown with the hands of Christ)
This year is the 500th Anniversary of Teresa's birth in 1515

"One day while I was in prayer, the Lord decided to show me just his hands.
I could never describe such beauty! The vision shocked me. I am always frightened when God gives me a new supernatural favor. A few days after this, he showed me his divine face, and I was completely absorbed.
Since the Lord would ultimately grant me the favor of seeing him whole, I wondered why he chose to reveal himself little by little. Later I understood that his Majesty was giving me exactly as much as my delicate nature could handle ...
Why, may you ask, does it require such strength to see some hands and a face? Glorified bodies are so exquisite that a mere glimpse of such supernatural beauty leaves a soul dazzled and confused. At first, this vision stirred intense fear in me. But the agitation soon melted into a sense of calm certainty and peace."
Taken from
Teresa of Avila : The Book of My Life
Translated by Mirabai Starr
New Seeds Books
Used with permission

Viriditas - Finding God In All Things

September 2nd, 2015

Viriditas : Finding God In All Things
An image with Icons too, created for Loyola Chicago University
5ft x 10ft
When Fr Mark Bosco, SJ commissioned me to paint his dream of these saints holding up the World, my question to myself was
� How do they hold up the World? �
The answer you see right here, is a kind of Map which might tell you where to go, but you have to actually make the journey. The Map is a prayer, and the journey, I pray will give you continual insights which will lead to action, so that with the holy three of Ignatius, Hildegard, Francis and the Holy Child Jesus, you might learn something about how the Holy Spirit continues to Green the World.
The Saints are grounded in the Blood of Christ which feeds the World as our Mother�s own blood feeds us in the womb.
If you look at nature closely in the early spring, all green things begin with red (wounds) buds, shoots, and branches. Then they flower into green and abundant colors of infinite life. The leaves, vibrant rocks and stones are living examples of how nature praises the Creator. Earth�s atmosphere, usually a thin line of blue is, in this version green , with the life of the Holy Spirit . Twelve tongues of the Spirit�s flames hover round the World as in a New Pentecost which St John the XXIII and St John Paul II prophesied for the 21st Century.
The Holy Spirit is seen just at that moment when God speaks the Word from Genesis : � Let there be Light � and life as we know it began to swirl from the void.
The gorgeous frame by Master woodworker Roberto Lavadie of Taos, chants the Holy Holy Holy...as with Hildegard�s inspired chants, she claims to have heard immersed in God, the Living Light; Heaven and Earth are full of God�s glory. Christ the Deer, or hart, is at the bottom standing in precious water which nourishes all life.
There is so much more to say, but I think that�s enough to begin to lead you into a contemplation of Viriditas: Finding God In All Things.

Fr William Hart McNichols
August 2015

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